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Marine fisheries have significant socio-economic importance for fishing communities globally, and a broad range of management systems are used to promote fisheries sustainability. In the U.S., rights-based fisheries management was federally implemented to align economic incentives with conservation objectives, and to facilitate long-term fisheries sustainability. However, the creation of transferable fishery access privileges also led to consolidation of fishery assets in some fisheries and regions, which can limit fishery access and shift the distribution of economic benefits. In response, some fishing communities established fisheries trusts, which are community-based entities that acquire and manage fishery privileges with the goal of sustaining community access to locally important fisheries. In addition to mitigating fishery access challenges, fisheries trusts can advance broader fisheries sustainability and community resilience goals. Despite the national footprint of fisheries trusts, no comprehensive assessment has been conducted to inform their formation, operation, impact, and challenges. This study presents a national review of fisheries trusts and a case study in California where five fisheries trusts were established in the commercial groundfish fishery. This review finds that fisheries trusts in the U.S. have grown in regional clusters in response to implementation of federal rights-based management systems (e.g., Individual Fishing Quota programs). Fisheries trusts in the U.S. maintain a primary focus on economic goals and secondary focus on conservation goals, but evaluation and measurement of performance requires improved information tracking and reporting. The case study illustrates how the development of fisheries trusts can address community-specific fishery access challenges and incentivize marine conservation practices. • Fisheries trusts emerged following the federal implementation of rights-based fisheries management in the U.S. • Fisheries trusts are community entities that acquire and manage fishery use rights for sustaining access to fisheries. • Fisheries trust management requires resources for leadership capacity, community support, and acquiring fishery use rights. • Evaluating the performance of trusts can be informed from lessons in other sectors, such as land trusts. • Fisheries trusts do not address all fishery access challenges, but can maintain diversified access to fishery opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• All five descending device types were effective at releasing rockfishes back to depth. • The SeaQualizer™ was commonly preferred among recreational angler surveys. • Initial post-release mortality was low, but doubled in depths greater than 100 m. • Rockfishes should be descended at least half-way to the capture depth for release. Fishes caught from depth often suffer from barotrauma, which can result in high mortality rates (close to 100% for some species) when released at the surface. To mitigate for this, the recreational fishing community pro-actively developed several different types of descending devices designed to assist unwanted or prohibited fish back toward the bottom for release. Post-release survival using recompression techniques has been documented for some species, which has allowed fisheries managers to begin revising estimates of total fishing mortality in some cases, but the effectiveness of the different commercially-available descending device types has not been quantified. We conducted 24 Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel charters at 11 sites along the coast of California, and invited volunteer recreational anglers aboard the charters to test the effectiveness of five different commercially available device types, and respond to a survey of their device preferences. During release, all fish were descended either to 46 m (150 ft) depth or directly to the bottom, whichever depth was shallower. While there were some significant differences between device types, all devices were effective for releasing rockfishes back to depth. Initial post-release mortality (defined as all mortality events observable from the vessel while fishing) across all devices was relatively low (7.5%) in capture depths less than 100 m, but increased significantly to 16.4% at capture depths from 100 to 135 m. Our results suggest that rockfishes should be released at least half-way to the bottom (preferably directly to the bottom) for the device to be effective in minimizing post-release mortality. The time required to use the devices averaged under three minutes regardless of device type, meaning that all device types could be used efficiently on deck, but anglers showed a clear preference for the SeaQualizer™. This device produced some of the lowest release error rates and lowest initial post-release mortality of rockfishes aboard the charters, so angler preference coincided with device effectiveness. Collaborating with the recreational fishing community was an extremely important aspect to this study, provided more robust results, and fostered working relationships that can be built upon in future research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernizing data systems to inform collaborative management is critical to adaptively managing fisheries in an era of climate change. In 2006, The Nature Conservancy of California purchased 13 federal groundfish permits in California with the objective of managing the fishing and reporting activities in a manner that protected sensitive habitats and species. At that time, collecting data for this fishery was done with paper logbooks. This made queries and visualization that could inform management decisions towards our objective impossible in a timely manner. To solve this problem, we built successive software prototypes that leveraged location-aware mobile devices, cloud-based computing, and visualization and query of geographic data over the web. The resulting software, eCatch, enabled avoidance of sensitive species and habitats and quantitative reporting on performance metrics related to those activities. What started as a technology solution to a problem of timely scientific monitoring revealed collateral benefits of collaboration with the fishing industry and markets that support sustainable activities. • Modern data systems are critical for adaptively managing fisheries. • Advances in technology (mobile, mapping, web, cloud) provide an opportunity to do so. • Unfortunately barriers to innovation in this space still exist. • Fortunately there are some market and social incentives for digital fisheries data. • Standards are probably more important than technical solutions to drive change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic ocean management, which leverages near real-time data to adaptively shift management in response to changing ocean conditions, is gaining attention as an alternative to static approaches for managing dynamic fisheries challenges. While promising, dynamic management can be data-intensive, costly, and difficult to implement, and its value relative to simpler static approaches should be evaluated before being applied, especially when endangered species and economically crucial fisheries are at risk. Here, we use management strategy evaluation to compare static and dynamic management strategies for reducing humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) entanglement risk in the highly lucrative California Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) trap fishery. We find that simple gear reductions outperform dynamic management strategies across several measures of performance. Gear reductions maintain uninterrupted fishing seasons and high fisheries catch and effectively prevent whale entanglement risk by directly reducing the number of vertical trap lines. Furthermore, gear reductions are robust to delayed openings resulting from biotoxin contamination and low meat quality, do not depend on the availability or accuracy of entanglement risk indicators, add no new management costs or enforcement challenges, and avoid biases in geographical equity. Dynamic management strategies, which proactively or reactively respond to indicators of entanglement risk, struggle to achieve their intended benefits because they are implemented after long logistical delays and because they redistribute rather than reduce entanglement risk. Bycatch threatens protected species and valuable fisheries around the world and models like the one developed here present valuable tools for weighing solutions to complex fisheries and conservation challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Voluntary collective agreements among fishermen can improve the environmental and economic performance of a fishery, particularly when local leadership, strong incentives, catch accountability, and operational support are in place. Rights-based fisheries, such as Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) systems, incentivize fishermen to act collectively to reduce fishing impacts, enhance stock health, and improve economic outcomes. However, developing cooperatives requires durable contracts, operational capacity, funding, and the ability to track, monitor, and enforce agreed-upon catches and fishing practices. This project focuses on the U.S. West Coast groundfish trawl IFQ fishery, and how the formation of a voluntary collective agreement, in the form of a bycatch risk pool (California Groundfish Collective), achieved improved fishery performance and other ancillary benefits. Up-front investment in the risk pool by a conservation non-governmental organization (NGO) provided both capacity and quota to cover transaction costs and incentivize transition to a cooperative model that was implemented across 5 ports and more than 48,000 km2 of fishing grounds off California. The challenges encountered in developing and operating the risk pool offer insights into designing and implementing voluntary collective agreements. By using spatial fishing plans and technology for collecting and sharing catch information, risk pool members reduced bycatch of overfished species relative to the fleet at large. Risk pool members were also able to use their spatial fishing data to inform a seafood sustainability rating and propose areas for Essential Fish Habitat protection, their quota pounds to support collaborative research on overfished species, and their collective membership to advocate for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The California Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) fleet is unique in scale of operation, extensive fishing history, and economic impacts. The basses ( Paralabrax sp. ), which represent a principal target for the CPFV fleet, recently gained more stringent size limits and bag limits. The goal of this study was to conduct a survey of CPFV captains to assess perceptions regarding the status of two Paralabrax species, as well as the impacts of the new regulations. Catch and effort estimates were also obtained using CPFV logbook data to compare captains’ perceptions with actual changes in the fishery. The captains agreed that both species are vital to recreational fishing, and that the Barred Sand Bass stock is less healthy than Kelp Bass. Catch and effort analyses were consistent with this perception, with more dramatic declines in CPUE exhibited by Barred Sand Bass. The most experienced captains perceived the status of each species to be in a less healthy state than the less experienced captains, suggesting that shifting baselines are occurring. Most of the captains thought the increased minimum size limits had the greatest short-term impact on the fishing experience. The CPFV logbook data summaries support this assertion, but Kelp Bass CPUE showed a trend reversal. In contrast, Barred Sand Bass CPUE has precipitously declined, and spawning aggregations have been absent since 2013. The agreement between captains’ perceptions and logbook analyses strengthens the overall findings, and suggests captains are a valuable resource for informing fisheries management, especially in future studies with data-limited stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

California's commercial and recreational fisheries support vibrant coastal economies and communities. Maintaining healthy fishing communities into the future requires a detailed understanding of their past. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has been monitoring statewide fisheries landings and participation since 1916 and releases confidential versions of this data through authorized data requests and non-confidential summaries of this data in its quasi-annual landings reports. The non-confidential data published in the landings reports provide a rich history of California's fisheries but are scattered across 1000s of tables in 100 s of documents, limiting their accessibility to researchers, fishers, and other interested stakeholders. We reviewed the 58 landings reports published from 1929 to 2020 and extracted and carefully curated 13 datasets with long time series and wide public interest. These datasets include: (1) annual landings in pounds and value by port and species from 1941 to 2019; (2) annual number of commercial fishing vessels by length class from 1934 to 2020; (3) annual number of licensed commercial fishers by area of residence from 1916 to 2020; and (4) annual number of party boat (CPFV) vessels, anglers, and their total catch by species from 1936 to 2020. Notably, we harmonized port names, species common names, and species scientific names across all years and datasets. We make these curated datasets, collectively called the CALFISH database, publicly available to any interested stakeholder in the supplementary materials of this paper, on an open-access data-repository, and in the wcfish R package. These datasets can be used (1) to understand the historical context of California's fisheries; (2) for original research requiring only summaries of historical landings and participation data; and (3) to anticipate the likely characteristics of confidential data requested from the state. We conclude the paper by identifying key principles for increasing the accessibility and utility of historical fisheries landings and participation data. • California has a rich but undigitized history of non-confidential fisheries data. • We digitized 13 datasets describing landings and participation in CA's fisheries. • Landings time series describe catch by sector, geography, and species. • Participation time series describe numbers of fishers, vessels, and anglers over time. • The datasets are made publicly accessible in three open-access locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental fishing is a powerful tool to support adaptive management by exploring. innovative fisheries practices, scientific approaches, and management actions. In the. United States, capacity and interest exist to use on-the-water experimentation to test. alternative ideas to meet the national standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and. promote sustainable fisheries. One program, the U.S. exempted fishing permit (EFP). program, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (NOAA) within federal waters (3–200 nautical miles offshore), promotes. experimentation as a collaborative process between scientists, managers, and industry. to develop creative solutions to evolving fisheries challenges. Over a period of 11. years, 953 EFPs were issued in federal fisheries in the United States. Yet, to date no. comprehensive analysis of the impacts, challenges, and lessons learned have been. documented across the EFP program. Here, we developed the first standardized. nationwide database of EFPs in the U.S. and generated an overview of the program. aimed at providing key lessons for managers, fishers, scientists, and industry. The. study evaluated the program at both the national and regional levels defined by NOAA. We found that EFP projects that are industry-led, inclusive of more study participants,. and with strong scientific and programmatic support by partners were more informative to management outcomes. While programmatic differences between NOAA regions. contributed to project outcomes and their connection to management, all regional. programs would benefit from stronger documentation and a standardized database to facilitate program review and learning across regions to strengthen the utility of the. EFP program more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The fishery for California groundfishes is managed using broad species complexes, although some non-groundfish species are managed similarly due to the perception of shared behavioral characteristics. This study integrates acoustic telemetry and a GIS to quantify movement patterns of one such species, the ocean whitefish (Caulolatilus princeps) in a marine protected area. Seventeen ocean whitefish were tagged and actively tracked over multiple 24-h periods to measure fine-scale movement patterns. Home ranges based on 95% kernel utilization distributions averaged 20,439±28,492 (±S.D.)m2. Fish were active during the day, foraging over sand habitat at depths averaging 21±8m, but were inactive at night, taking refuge near rocky reefs at depths averaging 15±7m. Seventeen additional fish were tagged with coded acoustic transmitters and passively tracked using automated underwater acoustic receivers for up to 1 year. Approximately 75% of these fish exhibited long-term (1 year) fidelity to home ranges in the study area. Results suggest that MPAs can be an effective means of protecting populations of ocean whitefish and based on their habitat associations, ocean whitefish can be managed separately from other reef associated groundfishes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]