1. Update on Federal Actions to Protect Unmanaged Forage Fish
California Fish and Game Commission Meeting
April 13, 2016
Santa Rosa
Deb Wilson-Vandenberg
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Marine Region
Today I am here to provide a status update to the Commission on the three year federal process to protect a group of unmanaged forage fish.

2. Overview Shared Ecosystem Component Species Timeline of Federal Events
Next Steps

3. Shared Ecosystem Component Species
Round and Thread herring
Mesopelagic fishes (Myctophids or lanternfish)
Pacific sandlance
Pacific saury
Silversides
Osmerid (“true”) smelts
Pelagic squids (not Humboldt squid)
R. Kuiter
Alaskafisheries.noaa
J. Harding/NOAA
The Council chose these seven species groups to protect based on their importance to federally managed species as well as the ecosystem as a whole.
POINT TO THEM Varying distribution and importance across the three states.
All relatively small schooling species; some are distributed more off Washington and Oregon, some are more common off California, and some are more common off California only in El Niño years when they move north to follow warmer water.
CDFW
NOAA Fisheries
CDFW

4. Shared Ecosystem Component Species
NOAA Fisheries
MARE
Ray Troll
NOAA Fisheries
Important for Fishery Management Plan Species
Important for Birds, Marine Mammals, People
The PFMC has four federal FMP that cover fish species that are typically found in federal waters miles, and the state participates in a joint management effort, and takes conforming action to the federal rules set by the FMPs
Highly migratory species (tunas), Groundfish, coastal pelagic species, salmon
Based on the available diet information, Shared EC Species are important part of the ecosystem and are important in the diets of species in federal fmps. In addition, they are important in diets of marine birds and mammals and we also eat them.
Commercial fisheries they are used for bait and as aquarium food for places like the Monterey Bay aquarium and Sea Bird care facilities
Deb Wilson-Vandenberg
Deb Wilson-Vandenberg
D. Micus

5. Federal Actions Timeline
April 2013 – Adopted Fishery Ecosystem Plan
Began Forage Fish Initiative
April 2014 – Adopted Purpose and Need Statement
March 2015 – Adopted language for Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment (CEBA – 1)
September 2015 – Finalized regulatory language
March 2, 2016 – NMFS approved CEBA –1
Spring 2016 – Final rule publishes
In April 2013 the Council adopted a non-regulatory Fishery Ecosystem Plan and then began an initiative to further Ecosystem based management related to unmanaged forage fish.
In the following year, they adopted a purpose and need statement relative to these species,.
Recognizes their importance to the marine ecosystem
Provides adequate protection without impacting current activities
Prohibits development of new directed fisheries in federal waters before assessing the science
Also, the regulations would only apply in federal waters. – not to activities in state waters.
Developed language for incorporating all the subject species into each of the four fmps as Shared Ecosystem Component Species due to their greater importance to the ecosystem. Process was to amend all four fishery management plans (CEBA -1)
By March the Council adopted fmp amendment language, still needed one more thing. Recognize what was still occurring – incidental activity--, to continue to allow it, while preventing initiation of new fisheries.
NOAA’s requirement to define “Directed” so that only incidental activities would be allowed.
Language was adopted in September 2015.

6. Next Steps
CDFW Director’s authority to conform state regulations (FGC Section 7652)
Exploring consistencies with existing State activities
As we await the federal regulations becoming effective, the Department is involved in using the Dir3ecotr’s authority to conform state regulations with federal regulations. But even conformance is not necessarily simple, so we are in the process of identifying any instances where there may be a conflict with existing activities at the state level. We are attempting to work with our stakeholders to resolve these.
CDFW

7. For More Information
National Marine Fisheries Service Report on Federal Regulations to Implement Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 1: Protecting Unfished Forage Fish Species
Final Environmental Assessment: Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 1: Protecting Unfished and Unmanaged Forage Fish Species of the U.S. Portion of the California Current Ecosystem

8. Thank You and Questions?
NOAA Fisheries
Deb Wilson-Vandenberg
Senior Environmental Scientist

9. Incidental Landing Limits
…“directed fishing” means that a fishing vessel lands Shared EC Species without landing any species other than Shared EC Species, or lands Shared EC Species with other species in amounts more than:
10 mt combined weight from any fishing trip; or
30 mt combined weight in any year.
Restrictions on At-Sea processing: Process more than 1 mt of Shared EC Species other than squid in any calendar year; or, process more than 40 mt of any Shared EC squid species in any calendar year.
National Marine Fisheries Service Report on Federal Regulations to Implement Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 1: Protecting Unfished Forage Fish Species
Final Environmental Assessment: Comprehensive Ecosystem-Based Amendment 1: Protecting Unfished and Unmanaged Forage Fish Species of the U.S. Portion of the California Current Ecosystem

10. CalCOFI La Jolla December 2013
I want to put the commercial take of these Ecosystem Component species into some context for the Commission. I apologize this figure is from a presentation in 2013, but I think the point is still relevant.
In general, when we consider the landings of things considered “forage” it is generally things like our major forage species – market squid, Pacific herring, jack and Pacific mackerel, sardines and anchovies.
This is a figure of the combined landings of these major forage species in ORANGE. Note the vertical axis is in thousands of metric tons.
LOOK CLOSELY The minor category in BLACK includes landings for the forage species I am talking about today. The black bars were increased for emphasis. They are definitely minor compared to the other species,
CalCOFI La Jolla December 2013
Data Source: Commercial Fisheries Information System Database