Fish and Game Commission to Adopt 2013 Salmon Regulations

Media Contacts:
Harry Morse, CDFW Communications, (916) 323-1478
Adrianna Shea, FGC Deputy Director, (916) 508-5262

The California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) will consider recreational salmon season regulations for 2013 at its meeting Wednesday in Santa Rosa.

Last week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) approved recreational and commercial ocean salmon seasons for federal waters off the California, Oregon and Washington coasts. On Wednesday, the FGC is expected to set regulations for salmon fishing in rivers and in the state’s ocean waters, within three miles of shore.

Fishery biologists predict robust numbers of Klamath and Sacramento River fall-run Chinook off California’s coast, providing substantial fishing opportunity for 2013. However, fishing effort still must be constrained to protect vulnerable salmon populations, such as endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook.

To protect winter-run Chinook, the PFMC closed fishing off much of the California coast on Mondays and Tuesdays, from June 1 to July 9.

“California anglers can look forward to potentially excellent ocean salmon fishing,” said Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) representative on the PFMC. “The projected abundance of key stocks is well above the low levels we’ve seen in recent years.”

Salmon seasons are set largely based on forecasts of ocean salmon abundance. The forecasts this year indicate enough salmon for good fishing. Specifically, the forecast for adult Sacramento River fall-run Chinook in the ocean is 834,000, well above the target range for optimal spawner returns of 122,000 to 180,000 fish. The forecast for Klamath River fall-run Chinook is 727,600, the third highest on record.

Summary of PFMC Ocean Season:

The FGC will be considering recent federal actions on salmon when it makes its decision on ocean salmon seasons in state waters. On April 11, the PFMC set recreational salmon fisheries in federal waters from the Oregon-California border to Horse Mountain in Humboldt County to run from May 1 through September 8. In the Shelter Cove and Fort Bragg areas, the season opened April 6 and will continue through November 10. The minimum size limit in these ports north of Point Arena will be 20 inches the entire season.

Between Point Arena and Pigeon Point, in the San Francisco area, the PFMC set the season to be open seven days per week through November 10, except from June 1 through July 9, when Mondays and Tuesdays will be closed to salmon fishing. The minimum size limit is 24 inches through the end of July, and 20 inches thereafter.

For the areas south of Pigeon Point to the U.S-Mexico border, including Monterey Bay, salmon fishing will continue seven days per week through October 6, except from June 1 through July 9, when Mondays and Tuesdays will be closed to salmon fishing.  The minimum size limit will remain 24 inches throughout the season.

The ocean bag and possession limit in California is two salmon of any species except coho.  For complete California ocean salmon regulations, please visit the ocean salmon web page at: www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/oceansalmon.asp or call the Ocean Salmon Regulations Hotline (707) 576-3429.

The FGC meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the Flamingo Conference Resort & Spa, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa.

California Creates a Globally Significant Network of Marine Protected Areas

California recently completed an historic overhaul of how it manages its coastal waters by revising and expanding its system of marine protected areas (MPAs). This system of MPAs is the largest scientifically based network in the U.S. and second largest in the world. How California accomplished this consequential achievement is the subject of a March special issue of the journal Ocean and Coastal Management released last month. Articles analyze the challenges, achievements and lessons learned in the public MPA planning processes.

Under a mandate from the state’s 1999 Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), California’s network of MPAs designated by the California Fish and Game Commission have greatly increased the proportion of state waters protected. The resulting network designates approximately 9.4 percent of state waters as “no-take” MPAs, and about 16 percent of state waters are now under some form of protection, which is a dramatic increase in coverage. Informed by science and crafted with significant stakeholder involvement, California’s new network of 124 designated areas (including 119 MPAs and five recreational management areas, all managed within the network)  replaced 63 existing MPAs that were mostly small (covering just 2.7 percent of state waters, with less than ¼ percent in no-take MPAs) and considered ineffective. The area covered by the MPAs represents approximately 60 percent of all no-take MPAs within the waters of the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Planning for this network of MPAs yields important lessons for other planning efforts globally.

The special issue of Ocean and Coastal Management includes nine articles by key participants from the MLPA Initiative, an innovative public-private partnership between the California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Initiative was tasked with helping the state redesign its MPAs in conjunction with stakeholders, scientists, experts, resource managers, policy-makers and the public. The articles have now been made available for free download at the journal website.

“This special issue provides an important record of the MLPA Initiative’s work and how California conducted public processes to design an improved system of MPAs and therefore provides important lessons that can inform other similar efforts,” said Mary Gleason, senior scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

“The network of MPAs was designed by stakeholders with guidance from scientists, managing agencies, experts, members of the public and policy-makers, to meet the six goals of the MLPA, while also allowing for human uses of marine resources – understandably a complicated task that involved tradeoffs and compromises but with the vision that the MPA network will provide long-term benefits to California and our marine environment,” said Ken Wiseman, executive director of the MLPA Initiative.

Informed by scientific guidance intended to increase benefits and ecological connections among individual MPAs, this improved network is also globally significant.

“Completing the nation’s first statewide open coast system of marine protected areas strengthens California’s ongoing commitment to conserve marine life for future generations,” said Charlton H. Bonham, director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “This statewide system will also benefit fish and fishermen in California for generations to come. And, the science shows that by protecting sensitive ocean and coastal habitats, marine life flourishes and in turn, creates a healthier system overall.”

The California Fish and Game Commission, the decision-making authority under the MLPA, acted on the basis of recommendations delivered by the MLPA Initiative, which conducted four regional public planning processes between 2005 and 2011. California’s MLPA calls for redesigning the state’s existing MPAs to meet specific goals to increase coherence and effectiveness in protecting the state’s marine life, habitats, ecosystems and natural heritage as well as to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems subject to minimal human disturbance.

Critical to successfully completing the new MPA network planning processes were some distinctive elements that are highlighted in the special issue, including:

• Certain enabling conditions were in place in California to support the public MPA network planning: a legislative act, political support and sufficient funding to support a multi-year effort.
• The MLPA Initiative was a public-private partnership structured through formal agreements and charged with working with stakeholders, scientists, experts, resource managers, policy-makers and the public to develop recommendations for an improved network of MPAs.
• The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF), composed of experienced policy makers, provided oversight to the process and forwarded final recommendations to the California Fish and Game Commission. The BRTF played a crucial role in managing complex and contentious issues, balancing tradeoffs and maintaining momentum toward completing the planning processes.
• The MLPA Master Plan Science Advisory Team provided robust scientific guidance and assessment, including developing simple guidelines for MPA network design based on ecological principles intended to support achieving the six MLPA goals. Marine scientists from many institutions participated in the planning process, including researchers from the University of California campuses at Davis, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz and Ecotrust who developed mathematical models to project the fisheries costs and benefits, in terms of both economics and conservation, of the proposed MPAs. Contract technical support provided additional science capacity and developed new interactive, spatially explicit decision support tools, including MarineMap.
• The MLPA Initiative overcame some of the challenges of prior statewide planning efforts, unsuccessful in part due to the size and complexity of California’s coast, by sequencing the work of the MLPA Initiative into four coastal regions which allowed planning and stakeholder engagement at more appropriate scales.

• The MLPA Initiative was controversial and confronted a variety of political and legal challenges. Some fishing interests strongly opposed the process and viewed MPAs, which in part limit fishing in specific areas, as unnecessary for fisheries already subject to other regulations. Other stakeholders judged the redesigned and adopted MPAs as insufficient to meet the ecosystem protection goals of the MLPA.
• An important challenge to adaptively managing MPAs over the long-term will be to demonstrate success in meeting the goals of the MLPA, including rebuilding or sustaining marine life populations.

“Science dictated the establishment of these MPAs, and their success will be reflected in data acquired through cost-effective monitoring. We are confident that monitoring will show the same results as elsewhere in the oceans: MPAs work.” said Mike Weber, program officer with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation.

Design of the MPA network aimed to meet science and design feasibility guidelines to help achieve the identified goals; final decisions in each region necessarily reflected tradeoffs needed to garner public acceptance and support for implementing the MPAs. California is developing mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of the MPA network in the coming years, including establishing the MPA Monitoring Enterprise and a process for periodic review and adaptive management of MPAs. The first periodic review will take place in 2013 for the central coast, affording the first opportunity to test the adaptive management aspect of the MLPA.

“This first-of-its-kind network of MPAs in the United States shows how citizens can work with their government to apply the best of science to create a lasting ocean legacy for future generations,” observed Meg Caldwell, executive director of the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University in California.

CONTACTS:
Jordan Traverso, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
(916) 654-9937
Jordan.Traverso@wildlife.ca.gov

Links:

Ocean and Coastal Management special issue – http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09645691/74

California’s Marine Protected Areas  – www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/mpa

Center for Ocean Solutions - www.centerforoceansolutions.org

California Natural Resources Agency – www.resources.ca.gov

California Department of Fish and Wildlife – www.dfg.ca.gov

California Fish and Game Commission – www.fgc.ca.gov

Resources Legacy Fund Foundation – www.resourceslegacyfund.org/rlff.html

 

CDFW to Host Public Meeting on Salmon

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) invites the public to attend its upcoming annual salmon status update and outlook meeting. Possible seasons for 2013 California ocean and river salmon fisheries will be discussed.

This year’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sonoma County Water Agency, 404 Aviation Blvd. in Santa Rosa.

The meeting will provide the latest information on California salmon escapement in 2012 and the outlook for sport and commercial ocean salmon fisheries during the coming season. The public is encouraged to provide input to a panel of California salmon scientists, managers and representatives, many of whom will be directly involved in the upcoming Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meetings in March and April.

Salmon fishing seasons are developed through a collaborative regulatory process involving the PFMC, the California Fish and Game Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The input will help California representatives negotiate a broad range of season alternatives during the PFMC March 6-11 meeting in Tacoma, Wash.

The 2013 Salmon Information Meeting marks the beginning of the two-month long public management and regulatory process used to establish this year’s sport and commercial ocean salmon fishing seasons. A list of additional meetings and other opportunities for public comment is available on the ocean salmon webpage, http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/salmonpreseason.asp.

The meeting agenda and handouts will also be posted online as soon as they are finalized.

Media Contacts:
James Phillips, DFG Marine Region, (707) 576-2375
Andrew Hughan, DFG Communications, (916) 322-8944