California Fisheries Fund
The California Fisheries Fund offers loans to California fishing communities, groups, associations, and businesses who are interested in transitioning to more environmentally and economically sustainable fishing practices and management approaches. The Fund was developed in response to the lack of traditional capital available for financing improvements in fishery management, processing, and marketing that, in turn, could enhance conservation, profitability, and viability of fishing communities.
Examples of potential projects that may be supported by the Fund include those that:
- promote the transition to gear types that have less impact on bottom habitats and reduced bycatch rates
- reduce fishing capacity in overcapitalized fisheries
- support planning and implementation for management reforms for a particular fishery
- improve marketing for sustainable seafood products or create sustainable seafood products that qualify for certification
- support fisheries-supporting infrastructure
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) currently manages the Fisheries Fund and developed the concept in coordination with ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific, a nonprofit community development financial institution. EDF has used OPC funds as leverage to raise an additional $3 million from private sources.
Please visit the California Fisheries Fund website for more information or if you are interested in applying for a loan.
Events and Updates
In April 2009, the fund announced its first loans. Read more about them on the CFF website.
Project Grantee and Partners
Environmental Defense Fund
ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific
Outcomes
Investing in the Future of California’s Fisheries – The California Fisheries Fund Business Framework (October, 2006)
Council Documents
Fund capitalization staff recommendation (February 2007)
Business plan staff recommendation (September 2005)
OPC Staff Contact
Sheila Semans
ssemans@scc.ca.gov
707-964-0176
Preventing Ocean Litter
Ocean litter – commonly referred to as marine debris – is a persistent and growing problem worldwide that significantly impacts the health and beauty of our oceans and beaches. The OPC has launched a comprehensive initiative to reduce marine debris in California because this litter poses serious threats to marine wildlife, including sea birds, turtles, and mammals, as well as to human health and the economy.
Scientific research demonstrates that debris in the oceans is increasing at an alarming rate: plastic debris in an area north of Hawaii known as the Northwest Pacific Gyre has increased 5-fold in the last 10 years. In the Southern Ocean, the amount of plastic debris increased 100 times during the early 1990s. Researchers estimate that 80 percent of marine debris comes from land-based sources, particularly trash and plastic litter in urban runoff, and the generation of trash and waste is increasing. Sea-based sources include lost fishing gear, such as lines, nets or traps, and accidental or intentional dumping at sea.
The OPC adopted an Implementation Strategy to Reduce and Prevent Ocean Litter in November 2008. The document was created in response to the OPC’s February 2007 resolution that called for a plan of action to reduce and prevent marine debris. The report aims to prompt a change in how California generates, handles, and disposes items that frequently land in our ocean. The implementation strategy offers sixteen recommendations, ranging from banning smoking on state beaches to anti-litter education and clean-up initiatives, with three priority actions. These three priority actions aim to redefine California’s relationship with frequently used plastics and commonly littered items. They are to 1) create a producer take-back program, or Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), for convenience food packaging, 2) ban polystyrene take-out food containers and place a fee on single-use plastic and paper bags, and 3) place a fee on commonly littered products that are not suitable for a take-back program or ban.
The OPC is partnering with Cal/EPA to promote its Green Chemistry Initiative as it relates to chemical that reach our oceans through toxic products. To address derelict fishing gear, the OPC is examining new ways to reduce derelict gear and is working with the SeaDoc Society to publicize a reporting hotline for fishermen who have lost their gear at sea.
Photo credit: Ocean Conservancy
Additional Council Documents
Resolution on Extended Producer Responsibility
Related Projects
- Toxicological Profiles
- Plastics Flow Account
- Master Environmental Assessment of Single-Use and Reusable Bags
- Derelict Fishing Gear
Photo credit: Ocean Conservancy
The California Coastal Mapping Program
The California Coastal Mapping Program is a comprehensive effort to combine seafloor mapping data with shoreline data to create seamless onshore-offshore maps of California’s coastline.
The coastal area of California is diverse, ranging from towering coastal bluffs to dense urban development and rolling pastoral lands. Immediately offshore, the underwater topography is equally varied with deep canyons, seamounts, and small shelves extending from the shoreline.
Accurate maps and recorded data on are essential to ensuring the California’s marine and coastal areas are understood and effectively managed. California’s coastal region is home to numerous existing and proposed activities and sea level rise and climate change impacts will change the coast as we know it. With such a myriad of interests, uses, and potential impacts, the OPC is taking a leading role to record the coastal area and ensure important geospatial data are available to resource agencies.
The California Coastal Mapping Program has three major initiatives under way to achieve this objective:
- The California Seafloor Mapping Project
- The California Shoreline Mapping Project
- The Collaborative Geospatial Data Management Project:
The CGDME was started in 2009 to identify and promote sharing of datasets needed by the numerous state agencies with coastal and ocean interests, such as the Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Commission, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the State Lands Commission, and California State Parks. Datasets from federal agencies may also be incorporated into an interactive and accessible tool or framework designed to provide relevant data to resource managers, scientists, and the public for improved decision-making.
Integrating these three initiatives is a long-term goal. The topographic mapping data can be merged with the seafloor mapping data to produce a seamless onshore-offshore map that would greatly enhance the understanding and management of the coastal area. This modern high-resolution map can form the baseline map of any coastal geospatial decision-support tool. Following this integration, the OPC and California will be better prepared to:
- Better understand and mitigate the impacts from sea level rise
- Evaluate sites for renewable ocean energy and aquaculture projects
- Better understand sediment transport and sand delivery
- Ensure vessel safety
- Help identify tectonic faults and fault dynamics
- Forecast storm inundation and coastal erosion
- Better understand coastal earthquakes and tsunami potential
- More effectively regulate offshore coastal development
- Contribute to the federal process of Marine Spatial Planning
- Quantify cumulative impacts for different activities in the same location
- Identify key habitats that should be prioritize for protection
For example, the OPC funded a study to project inundation and erosion impacts from future sea level rise; however, the mapping data available for this project was less than optimal. In the future, such data will be readily available to anyone and will set the stage for a better understanding of our coastal and marine environment and how humans interact with this landscape.
Promoting Applied Ocean Research
Promoting Applied Ocean Research
Solving complex ocean resource problems requires scientific understanding of how ocean and coastal ecosystems function. The OPC strives to bridge the gaps between scientists, the public, and resource managers by supporting applied scientific research and the translation of data into usable information.
The OPC integrates and utilizes existing scientific information in many ways. Working with the Science Advisory Team (OPC-SAT), the OPC ensures that the best available science is applied to OPC policy decisions. The OPC-SAT is coordinated by the California Ocean Science Trust (OST) and co-chaired by the OST Executive Director. One of the OPC-SAT’s fundamental functions is evaluating the technical merit of scientific projects by suggesting experts to serve as peer reviewers for OPC proposals and products. In coordination with OPC staff, the OPC-SAT also develops yearly research priorities. Finally, to keep the OPC at the cutting edge of ocean and coastal research, the OPC-SAT identifies critical emerging science issues for OPC consideration, which are used by the council to inform future meeting themes, projects, and workshops.
To support new science, the OPC funds applied ocean research projects that correspond to the priorities proposed by the OPC-SAT. These research projects are solicited and chosen in partnership with the UC Sea Grant program and USC Sea Grant Program in California. Recent years have seen the development of an innovative funding approach: the Focused Research and Outreach Initiative. The goal is to promote well-coordinated, interdisciplinary programs of applied research and training focusing on a priority research topic. The research funded through the Sea Grant programs includes projects on international ecosystem-based management of fishery resources in the Southern California Bight, groundfish assemblages on offshore petroleum platforms on the San Pedro Shelf, and the impacts of ocean acidification on economically important shellfish species.
Related Projects
- California Ocean Science Trust Science Integration
- Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Enterprise
Preserving California’s Fisheries
The waters off California’s coastline boast some of the most productive fisheries in the world and as a result, the state is defined by its rich fishing heritage. The OPC is committed to preserving and restoring California’s valuable fisheries and the communities and people that depend on them.
California’s fisheries are faced with many threats including pollution, habitat destruction, overfishing, and climate change. Each of these challenges can contribute to declines in fish numbers and changes in distribution that in turn threaten fisheries and associated businesses. Pursing innovative policies and projects to help restore and promote our fisheries is a top priority for the OPC. The OPC views its mandate as an opportunity to address the underlying problems facing California’s fisheries, not just the symptoms.
The OPC is working to improve fisheries management throughout California by pursuing innovative community-based or cooperative management and supporting further implementation of the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA). The Marine Life Management Act Lessons Learned Project is now a complete report which was led by a six-member team to evaluate the successes and challenges of the implementation of the MLMA. The evaluation provides recommendations to assist future MLMA efforts by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) and California Fish and Game Commission (Commission). The Collaborative Fisheries Research (CFR) Organization will be a venue for commercial and recreational fishermen, academic scientists, coastal managers, tribes, non-governmental organizations, and funders to discuss and prioritize existing and emerging fisheries management data needs. Once established, the CFR Organization will also provide grant funding to support collaborative research projects that address these needs.
A primary focus of the OPC is to provide grant funding that directly supports fishermen, communities, and businesses that are willing to investigate and pursue new management approaches. In 2009, the OPC released the California Fisheries Challenge, a competitive grant program that offers fishermen and communities in the state an opportunity to submit proposals that will improve and sustain long-term fishery health and sustainability. The California Fisheries Fund is another innovative undertaking that offers loans to California fishing communities, groups, associations, and businesses to assist in transitioning to more environmentally and economically sustainable fishing practices and governance. This is particularly important when conventional investment capital or loans from traditional financial institutions may not be available. The first loans and lines of credit from the California Fisheries Fund were distributed to a fisherman, a dockside fish buyer, and a distribution company from the Central Coast in 2009.
Much of the OPC’s fishery work is also aimed at partnering with DFG to more fully achieve its mandate. In 2006, the OPC and DFG developed the Joint Workplan, which included a wide variety of projects funded through an $8 million appropriation. These projects focus on collecting and analyzing essential data to apply to the decision-making process and improving DFG vessels and equipment. The data collected pertains to marine ecology, essential habitats, species interactions, natural processes that affect fish populations, survey techniques, and data report methods.
The OPC tackles important fisheries issues by working with a wide range of stakeholders including commercial and recreation fishermen, state and federal fisheries managers (California Department of Fish and Game, the California Fish and Game Commission, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NGOs, academia, tribes, and others.
Related Projects
- San Francisco Fishermen’s Wharf Sustainable Seafood Market – 2010 Pilot Season
- Collaborative Fisheries Research Organization
- California Sustainable Seafood Initiative
- Central Coast Groundfish Project
- Dungeness Crab Task Force
- California Fisheries Fund
- San Luis Obispo Sustainable Fisheries Support
- Moss Landing Sustainable Fishing Feasibility Study
- San Diego Sea Urchin Fishery Project
