OPC Science Advisory Team (OPC-SAT)

About the Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team

The Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team (OPC SAT) provides scientific analysis and advice to the OPC and works to ensure that OPC policy and funding decisions are informed by the best available science. The OPC SAT was established in 2008 to help meet the goals of the California Ocean Protection Act, and offers a critical venue to bring state leaders and scientists together around pressing ocean and coastal challenges. The OPC SAT takes on a range of topics with emphasis on state priorities to address issues impacting coastal and marine ecosystems in California.

The OPC SAT and its members engage in four principal work modes: Expert Taskforces, Advisory Committees, Expert Panels, and as individuals. The OPC funds the work of the OPC SAT and Ocean Science Trust serves as Secretariat.

For more information about how the OPC SAT participates in its activities, forms collaborative groups, and reviews and approves its work products, see “The Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team: Responsibilities and Working Procedures (2018).”

OPC-SAT Work

OPC-SAT Working Group Reports:

• Accompanying Foreword for the newly released MPA reports below:
  • Evaluating California’s Marine Protected Area Network (June 2021)
  • Climate Resilience and California’s MPA Network (June 2021)
• Microplastic Risk Assessment Framework Development for California (May 2021)

Active Working Groups

• Working group: MPAs and Climate Resilience Science Synthesis and Data Needs (through 2020)
• Working group: 2022 MPA Management Review Scientific Guidance (through 2020)
• California Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Task Force (through 2021)

Previous Work

• Working Group: Microplastic Risk Assessment Framework Development for California (2021)
• Position Statement: The Ocean Will Help California Recover (August 2020)
• Ocean Restoration Methods: Scientific Guidance for Once-Through Cooling Mitigation Policy (2018)
• California’s Coast and Ocean Summary Report as part of California’s 4th Climate Change Assessment (2018)
• Herring Fishery Management Plan Peer Review (2018)
• Red Abalone Fishery Management Plan Peer Review (2018)
• Supporting California’s 4th Climate Assessment (2017-2018)
• Submerged Aquatic Vegetation as an Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia (2017)
• Updating California’s Sea Level Rise Guidance (2017)
• Climate Change and California Fisheries (2017)
• Fisheries Peer Review Guidance for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (2017)
• Evaluating Impacts from Scientific Activities in MPAs (2012 – 2017)
• Harmful Algal Blooms and California Fisheries (2016)
• West Coast Ocean Acidification and Hypoxia Science Panel (2013-2016)
• Spiny Lobster Fishery Management Plan peer review (2015)
• Abalone Density Estimates Peer Review (2014)

Annual Workshops

The OPC SAT comes together as a whole at least once per year in an in-person workshop. These workshops bring together OPC SAT members, OPC leadership and staff, Ocean Science Trust, agency decision-makers, other experts, and partner organizations as needed to share information and updates, discuss priorities, launch new initiatives, or hold technical workshops on specific questions.

• April 8, 2019: Engaging the OPC SAT  in OPC’s new draft Strategic Plan
• March 15, 2018: Supporting the OPC’s new strategic vision
• May 23, 2017: The Science of Climate Adaptation in California, full proceedings & two-page summary
• April 18, 2016: Bracing for a Changing World, full proceedings & two-page summary
• February 25, 2015: Readying California’s Fisheries for Climate Change, full proceedings & two-page summary
• June 11, 2014: Ocean Health as a Scientific Concept & Management Goal, full proceedings & two-page summary
• September 4, 2013: Advancing Science in California Fisheries, meeting summary 
• November 19, 2012: Ocean Acidification & Hypoxia: Engaging California in the Challenge, meeting summary
• April 18, 2012: Summarizing work related to aquatic invasive species, and engaging on harmful algal blooms in light of Sonoma coast event, meeting minutes
• September 30, 2011: Summarizing work related expert judgment as a science integration tool, and OPC SAT input on the 2012 – 2017 OPC strategic plan, meeting minutes
• January 31, 2011: Launching our input into the development of the 2012 – 2017 OPC strategic plan, developing a position statement on climate change, meeting minutes
• July 20, 2010: Providing input on focal areas for the OPC: climate change adaptation, land/ocean interface, sustainable fisheries, marine spatial planning, and emerging industrial uses, meeting minutes
• December 1, 2009: Exploring the role of the OPC-SAT, meeting minutes
• September 10, 2008: Establishing the OPC-SAT (our first meeting), meeting minutes

Executive Committee

Jenn Eckerle, Executive Director, Ocean Protection Council

Liz Whiteman (co-chair), Ocean Science Trust

William Sydeman (co-chair), Farallon Institute for Advanced Ecosystem Research

Members

Richard Ambrose, University of California, Los Angeles

Clarissa Anderson, Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System

Marissa Baskett, University of California, Davis

Mark Carr, University of California, Santa Cruz

Daniel Cayan, University of California, San Diego

Francisco Chavez, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Gary Griggs, University of California, Santa Cruz

Madeleine Hall-Arber, Sea Grant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (retired)

Elliott Hazen, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center

Gretchen Hofmann, University of California, Santa Barbara

Eunha Hoh, San Diego State University

Anne Kapuscinski, University of California, Santa Cruz

Kristy Kroeker, University of California, Santa Cruz

Arielle Levine, San Diego State University

Steven Murray, California State University Fullerton

Karina Nielsen, Oregon Sea Grant

Carrie Pomeroy, University of California, Santa Cruz

Laurie Richmond, Cal Poly Humboldt

Jim Sanchirico, University of California, Davis

John Stachowicz, University of California, Davis

Chuck Striplen, California Fish & Game Commission

Stephen Weisberg, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Contacts

Jenn Eckerle, Executive Director, Ocean Protection Council
jenn.eckerle@resources.ca.gov

Hayley Carter, Senior Science Officer, California Ocean Science Trust
hayley.carter@oceansciencetrust.org