The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has recently announced an upcoming informational webinar on the state’s efforts to develop a list of priority fisheries as directed by the 2018 Master Plan for Fisheries: A Guide for the Implementation of the Marine Marine Life Management Act (2018 Master Plan). Prioritizing state-managed fisheries will enable CDFW to focus limited resources on the fisheries with the greatest management needs and maximize resource and ecosystem benefits in accordance with the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA).
Prioritizing California’s Fisheries for Management Efforts
Using a Streamlined Ecological Risk Assessment
Thursday, October 3, 2019 | 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM PST
Webinar & screen sharing: https://www.uberconference.com/strategicearth
Optional call-in number: 424-228-8722, no pin needed
During the webinar, the Department will provide an overview of their work to move from an interim priority list in the Master Plan to a final priority list for twenty of the state’s marine finfish species and three marine invertebrate species that considers a more comprehensive evaluation of the risk of fishing to the ecosystem (target species, habitat, and bycatch).
This webinar was previously scheduled for this past summer and postponed to enable CDFW to continue to refine the prioritization approach. Building off of the Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) information gathering project of the MLMA Master Plan Amendment process, CDFW has further adapted the ERA tool to be more streamlined, intuitive, and objective. Using a streamlined ERA, CDFW can complete this initial prioritization step and focus on addressing potential higher-risk fisheries through scaled management. Participants are invited to learn about the evolution of the ERA tool and the priority list of fisheries. CDFW will also share information on the socioeconomic and climate change filters that will be applied to high priority fisheries that are the focus of management efforts moving forward.
Information about the upcoming webinar and meeting materials will be emailed and posted on the CDFW Marine Management News (here) in the coming weeks.
