Guide to California's MLMA ~ Appendix H: California's Marine Fisheries

Online Guide To California's Marine Life Management Act

Appendix H: California's Marine Fisheries

The Setting

For 1,100 miles, the spectacular mass of California's lands meets the Pacific Ocean. In many areas, mountains plunge into the oceans. Elsewhere, ancient shorelines stand as terraces above the surf. Streams and rivers break through the coastal mountains and, in some places, flow into bays and lagoons rimmed with wetlands. Offshore, islands and rocks break the surface.

This is what we can easily see. But beneath the surface of the water offshore, California's dramatic geological formations continue. Unlike the Atlantic or Gulf coasts, California's shallow continental shelf is quite narrow, generally no wider than five miles. At its broadest point off San Francisco, the shelf extends 30 miles offshore before plunging from 600 feet to the abyssal region at 6,000 feet. Here and there, peaks called seamounts rise from the depths to the photic zone where sunlight spurs plant growth and attracts life.

Whether near or far from shore, the ocean bottom may be rocky, sandy, or silty. It may be flat or formed of rocky reefs. In many areas along the coast, great canyons cut into the continental shelf quite close to shore. For example, the Monterey submarine canyon, which is larger than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, begins within miles of the shoreline. There, as at other submarine canyons, marine life normally found far offshore is drawn close to land by the deep waters. Off southern California, the ocean bottom appears like a piece of crumpled paper, with basins, troughs, canyons, peaks, and cliffs alternating in a checkerboard pattern.

Ocean currents introduce other dimensions to California's coastal waters. For much of the year, the California Current brings cool northern waters southward along the shore as far as southern California. There, where the coastline juts eastward, the California Current moves offshore. In the gap between the California Current and the mainland, the Southern California Countercurrent flows into the Santa Barbara Channel. Around Point Conception, these two currents meet, creating a rich transition zone. Closer to shore and deeper, the California Undercurrent also carries warmer water northward. Seasonal changes in wind direction commonly create seasonal patterns for these currents. In March, for instance, northwesterly winds combine with the rotation of the Earth to drive surface waters offshore, triggering the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water from the depths. Fueled by sunlight and the nutrients, single-celled algae bloom and create a rich soup that fuels a blossoming of marine life, attracting larger animals from seabirds and swordfish to humpback and blue whales.

By September, as the northwesterly winds die down, the cold water sinks again and warmer waters return to the coast. This oceanic period lasts into October, when the winds move to the southwesterly direction. These winds drive a surface current, called the Davidson Current, which flows north of Point Conception and inside the California Current, generally lasting through February.

Laid over this general pattern are both short-term and long-term changes. Local winds, topography, tidal motions, and discharge from rivers create their own currents in nearshore waters. Less frequently, a massive change in atmospheric pressure off Australia floods the eastern Pacific with warm water, which suppresses the normal pattern of upwelling. These short-term climatic changes, called El Niño, reduce the productivity of coastal waters, causing some fisheries and seabird and marine mammal populations to decline. El Niños can also increase the abundance of other species. For instance, warm waters that flow north in an El Niño carry the larva of sheephead and lobster from the heart of their geographical range in Mexico into the waters off California.

Other oceanographic changes last for a decade or more. In these regime shifts, water temperatures rise or fall significantly, causing dramatic changes in the distribution and abundance of marine life. The collapse of the California sardine fishery occurred when heavy fishing continued on sardine populations that were greatly reduced by a cooling of offshore waters in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In response to the decline in sardines, California law severely curtailed the catch. In 1977, waters off California began warming and remained relatively warm. The warmer water temperatures were favorable for sardines, whose abundance greatly increased. But the warmer waters also reduced the productivity of other fish, including many rockfish, lingcod, sablefish, and most flatfish, which favor cold water for successful reproduction.

Currents and other bodies of water may differ dramatically in temperature and chemistry, as well as speed and direction. These factors all influence the kinds of marine life found in different bodies of water. In general terms, geography, oceanography, and biology combine to divide California marine fisheries and other marine life into two major regions north and south of Point Conception. Within each region, other differences emerge. Conservation and use of California's marine life depends partly upon recognizing these differences.

Marine Life of California

The waters off California are host to 544 species of fish from 144 families. Thousands of species of marine invertebrates inhabit the sea floor from tidepools along the shoreline to muddy plains 8,000 feet deep. Dozens of species of coastal and offshore birds spend some part of the year in California's waters, as do 35 species of marine mammals. This great variety of marine life reflects the different responses of groups of animals and plants to changing environmental conditions over long periods of time. In successfully meeting their needs for growth, survival, and reproduction, individual species have developed a set of characteristics that biologists call life history traits. These traits include age at maturity, maximum age, maximum size, growth rate, natural mortality, and feeding and reproductive strategies.

Differences among species can be dramatic. For instance, California market squid mature within 12 months and die soon after spawning, whereas widow rockfish do not mature until age five at the earliest and may live as long as 59 years. This has profound consequences for managing fisheries so that they are sustainable. An analogy drawn by Richard Young between fishing and forestry illustrates the point. If it takes 50 years to grow a marketable tree, we can harvest only one-fiftieth of the trees each year if we want to maintain the same size forest. If we harvest more, the forest gets smaller. If we harvest less, it gets larger. However, if it takes only 10 years to grow a marketable tree, we can harvest 10 percent of the trees every year without reducing the size of the forest. So, if it takes a species of rockfish ten years to reach maturity, we can take only a small number of them and maintain the same size population, even if they appear to be "so thick you can walk on them." Reproductive strategies also vary. Queenfish, for instance, may spawn 24 times in a season, releasing their body weight in eggs into the open water, where most will be eaten whether or not they are fertilized. In contrast, species such as olive rockfish spawn just once a year, releasing up to 500,000 larvae, which have been fertilized and developed internally.

Amid the variety, the life histories of fish tend to fall into several larger categories. For instance, fish species that have low rates of mortality as adults, such as many species of sharks, bluefin tuna, billfish, and rockfish, also mature late and reproduce in smaller numbers. Organisms that have high rates of mortality as adults, such as anchovies and squid, grow quickly, mature early, and reproduce in large numbers. Some species spend the first 90 days of their lives floating as plankton in ocean currents. Climate and oceanographic changes influence the abundance of these species more than does the number of spawning adult fish.

Species differ also in their movements. For instance, during winter Dover sole move into deep water where they reproduce, then move into shallow water in the summer to feed. Pacific whiting migrate from their summer feeding grounds off Oregon and Washington to their winter spawning grounds off southern California and Baja California. By contrast, kelp bass, which can live to 30 years, venture less than a mile from their home range.

Individual plants and animals are part of larger communities that are linked in many ways. One of the clearest are the relationships among who eats whom, also known as the food web. Generally, the eating begins with herbivores, who consume plants that have manufactured food through photosynthesis. These herbivores may be as small as the larva of an anchovy or as large as a basking shark. The smaller herbivores pass along much of the food value of the plants when they are eaten by primary carnivores. In some marine communities, the story may end here. But the eating generally continues several more steps.

These relationships among wildlife populations differ considerably among different habitats and communities. A decrease in the abundance of some species, due to fishing, habitat alteration, or climate changes, for instance, can affect species that feed upon them. Considering these interrelationships when managing fisheries requires an ecosystem perspective. Healthy habitat can also play an important role in the abundance of marine wildlife. Some species of fish and shellfish are so dependent upon particular types of habitat, such as kelp forests or coastal wetlands, that the destruction of these habitats can devastate wild populations. The damming of almost every major coastal river in California has driven most runs of Pacific salmon to dangerously low levels. Since the 1850s, 90 percent of the state's coastal wetlands have been destroyed, causing incalculable losses in coastal wildlife. Finally, pollution of coastal waters can expose marine animals to toxic chemicals and can foster changes in plant communities that wildlife depend upon.

A Profile of California's Commercial Fisheries

California's marine fisheries are diverse. In 1999, California commercial fishermen reported landing 125 species of fish and shellfish. Although many species were caught in waters off California, other species, such as skipjack, yellowfin, and albacore tunas, swordfish, and pink shrimp, were caught in waters off other states or off other countries. In terms of weight and the revenues they generate for fishermen, a few species dominated landings in California, according to statistics maintained by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. In 1999, when California fishermen landed 214,245 metric tons of fish and shellfish, the top species by weight were the following:

Species	Metric Tons	Thousands of Dollars
Market squid	90,661	34,949
Pacific sardine	59,168	5,178
Chub mackerel	8,642	1,075
Red sea urchin	6,377	13,303
Albacore tuna	5,491	10,102
Northern anchovy	5,225	1,293
Rockfish	4,418	7,794
Dungeness crab	3,917	17,015
Dover sole	3,813	2,784
Skipjack tuna	3,759	2,748

All told, these species accounted for nearly 90 percent of the weight of fish and shellfish landed in California in 1999. Some of these species, such as mackerel and skipjack tuna, fetch little at the dock since they are reduced for use as animal feed or are used to produce low-priced canned products. Other species, such as sea urchins, Dungeness crab, and spot prawns, attract a higher price. As a result, the fish that led in the revenues they generated for fishermen in 1999 are different from those above:

Species	Metric Tons	Thousands of Dollars
Market squid	90,661	34,949
Dungeness crab	3,917	17,015
Red sea urchin	6,377	13,303
Albacore tuna	5,491	10,102
Swordfish	1,982	8,253
Rockfish	4,418	7,794
Chinook salmon	2,009	7,446
Pacific sardine	59,168	5,178
Spot prawn	279	4,265
Sablefish	1,957	4,261

These species accounted for 77 percent of the $146 million that fishermen were paid for their catch in 1999. Although other species are caught in much lower volumes, they generate significant earnings for fishermen because of their high prices. In 1999, average prices paid to fishermen for spot prawns were $6.94 per pound, according to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Fishermen who collected herring roe on kelp for export to Japan received an average of $2.66 per pound. Other species caught in relatively small volumes but fetching more than $2.00 per pound included bluefin tuna, California spiny lobster, California halibut, kelp greenling, cabezon, and eels.

Kelp has often dominated other marine life in volume of production in California. Kelp harvesting varies widely over the years, according to statistics maintained by the National Marine Fisheries Service. After a peak of 295 million pounds in 1980, kelp production fell to just 11 million pounds in 1984, after the El Niño of 1982-1983 decimated kelp beds along much of the California coast. Landings rebounded again to 303 million pounds in 1990, then fell to just 56 million pounds in 1998, another El Niño year.

Recreational Fisheries

California has long been among the leading states in recreational fishing. In 1985, California ranked second after Florida in the amount of money spent by anglers. The overall economic impact of recreational fishing, including both freshwater and saltwater angling, is greater than that of commercial fishing because of anglers' expenditures for goods and services such as transportation, fishing equipment, clothing, and boats. In all, recreational fishing generated about $5 billion in personal income and 153,849 jobs, according to a 1994 University of California study.

In the 1980s, when California's population increased by 25 percent, recreational fishing activity both in freshwater and saltwater declined. Between 1980 and 1989, the number of marine angling trips declined by 26 percent off northern California and 34 percent off southern California. Sales of annual resident fishing licenses also declined by 29 percent. Surveys indicated that common reasons for the decline were loss of interest, lack of time, lack of a fishing partner, and concern about pollution. More recent surveys for the federal government show a further decline in number of anglers and trips. The number of anglers fell from 1.5 million in 1993 to 1.4 million in 1998, while the number of trips fell from 5.8 million to 4.9 million.

Recreational fishermen most commonly use rod and reel with artificial lures, live bait, or dead bait. In 1997, chinook salmon led all other species in the recreational catch by hook and line. Fishermen may also use hoop nets to catch crabs, lobsters, or shrimp. Divers catch a wide variety of finfish with spears, and may catch crabs, lobsters, abalone, urchins, and scallops by hand. Shore pickers gather mussels, clams, or crabs at low tide, or California grunion by moonlight. The most common finfish caught by recreational anglers are different species of rockfish, kelp and sand bass, and Pacific mackerel. Of invertebrates, abalone and lobster are most popular among recreational divers, while shore pickers favor abalones, pismo clams, and rock crabs.

In 1980-1985, 35 percent of marine angling was from private boats, 25 percent from manmade structures, 20 percent from beaches and banks, and 20 percent from partyboats and charter boats (known technically as commercial passenger fishing vessels or CPFVs). There is little information on the amount of effort by shorepickers, although a 1989 survey concluded that 380,000 such trips were made in that year. Roughly 46 percent of those trips were for abalone, 30 percent for lobster, and 24 percent for clams.

In recent years, partyboat fishing has increased to about 30 percent of all marine recreational fishing. Better equipment, newer vessels, and greater fishing effort increased landings from two million fish in 1947 to nearly six million in 1969. The number of anglers boarding partyboats has ranged around 700,000 since 1970. The number of partyboats also increased rapidly after World War II, growing from 343 boats in 1947 to a peak of 612 in 1954. The partyboat fleet then declined to a low of 287 in 1985, and stood at 309 vessels in 1990.

In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million anglers took 5.2 million marine recreational fishing trips, according to the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Based on interviews and surveys conducted by the MRFSS, anglers caught about 21 million ocean fish and released about half of them, generally because they were undersized or an undesired species. Anglers retained about 18 million pounds of fish. The top ten species groups were as follows:

Species	Metric Tons
Miscellaneous tunas & mackerels	2,051
Yellowtail	1,463
Pacific barracuda	771
Kelp bass	346
Barred sand bass	338
Miscellaneous rockfish	256
California halibut	205
Pacific bonito	181
Yellowtail rockfish	171
Lingcod	163
Blue rockfish	141

As in other matters, there are two Californias when it comes to recreational fishing: those fisheries south of Point Conception and those north of Point Conception. Not counting salmon, which are tallied separately from marine species, anglers in southern California accounted for 64 percent of the total recreational catch in 1997, and all of the catch of three of the top ten species: yellowtail, Pacific barracuda, and barred sand bass. Sport fishermen in southern California also caught 99 percent of the kelp bass and Pacific bonito and 73 percent of the California halibut caught. Northern California sport fishermen dominated in salmon, yellowtail rockfish, lingcod, blue rockfish, tunas and mackerels, as well as most rockfish. Fifteen species were caught only by southern California anglers, while 13 were caught only by northern California anglers.

The southern California recreational fishery extends into the waters of Mexico. Estimates for 1985-1990 indicate that California anglers made 127,000 trips annually to Mexico, mostly from San Diego. Long-range, multi-day trips targeted yellowtail, mahi mahi, and tunas. Short-range, one-day trips targeted rockfish, kelp bass, and barracuda. Annual landings averaged 271,000 fish, with a peak of 404,000 fish.

California's Changing Fisheries

Marine fisheries in California have changed dramatically in the last quarter-century as governmental programs and regulations, economic conditions, markets, technology, and other factors have evolved. Consider the following:

The San Diego purse-seine fleet that delivered thousands of tons of yellowfin and skipjack tuna to processing plants in San Diego and San Pedro in the 1970s no longer fishes off Mexico and Central America nor delivers tuna to packing houses in southern California. In 1999, landings of skipjack and yellowfin tuna in California, which accounted for 37 percent of the volume and 58 percent of the value of commercial fisheries in 1981, accounted for just 2 percent of the volume and 3 percent of the value of California landings.
Of the top ten species in weight in 1975, only half ranked in the top ten in 1997: northern anchovy, skipjack tuna, squid, rockfish, and Dover sole. Yellowfin tuna, jackmackerel, Pacific bonito, bluefin tuna, and albacore tuna were replaced by Pacific sardine, chub mackerel, Pacific herring, sea urchins, and Pacific hake.
Since the early 1980s, total revenues to fishermen for their catches have fallen. From a peak of $289 million in 1980, the amount paid fishermen fell, largely due to the dramatic decline in landings of tunas caught off Mexico and Central America. In 1999, total revenues amounted to $146 million.
In the last 20 years, the number of full-time commercial fishermen has declined by three quarters.
Between 1977 and 1997, the number of commercial fishing vessels declined from 2,677 to 1,700, while the number of commercial fishing boats declined from 4,746 to 1,421. (Fishing vessels have a storage capacity of more than 5 net registered tons-that is, about 500 cubic feet-and must be registered with the U.S. Coast Guard.)

California Finfish and Shellfish Landings and Revenues 1970-1999

(Sources: Leet, Dewees, and Haugen (1992); CDFG Annual Statistical Reports)

Some fisheries have risen in the last two decades. For instance, successful marketing of urchin roe in Japan, with the assistance of the National Marine Fisheries Service, fostered the growth of a commercial fishery for sea urchins that became one of the state's most valuable. Between 1975 and 1980 alone, landings of sea urchins rose from 7.6 million pounds to 22.2 million pounds, while revenues grew from $615,000 to $3.6 million.

Other fisheries have declined for a wide variety of reasons including climate change, disease, and fishing. As these fish populations have declined, fishing has moved on to other species. In some cases, this pattern has led to serial depletion of species after species. A commonly cited case of this pattern is the abalone fishery, in which fishing moved from one species to the next as each species declined.

Changes in markets also can have profound effects on what gets caught. For instance, as expanding markets drove up prices for live fish in the late1980s, the catch of nearshore fish, especially rockfish, grew as well. Grass rockfish, which fetched fishermen 75¢ per pound in 1981, garnered $5.03 per pound in 1999, while cabezon rose from 17¢ per pound in 1981 to $3.82 per pound in 1999. Documented landings of these and other nearshore species grew rapidly as well. Commercial landings of grass rockfish increased from 3,630 pounds in 1991 to a peak of 118,742 pounds in 1995. Similarly, commercial landings of cabezon grew from 16,300 in 1991 to a peak of 373,400 pounds in 1998.

Other economic forces have affected fisheries in California. For example, inflation influences the ability of businesses of any kind to prosper, much less survive if they cannot raise prices at the same rate as their expenses rise. Fisheries are no different. Prices paid for many rockfish, spiny lobster, Dungeness crab, sea urchins, and spot prawns have more than kept pace with inflation. In other fisheries, however, the story is different. For instance, Dover sole fetched 22¢ per pound in 1981, according to Department of Fish and Game statistics. In 1999 dollars, that amounts to 43¢ per pound, much higher than the average 33¢ that fishermen actually received in 1999.

Increases in operating costs and other developments combined against fishermen in other fisheries. As the salmon farming industry expanded after 1980, Atlantic salmon from Norway, then Canada and Chile began flooding markets in the United States, driving salmon prices down. Prices that fishermen received for wild chinook salmon fell from $2.59 per pound in 1981 to $1.93 in 1999. Had chinook salmon prices just kept pace with inflation, California fishermen would have received $5.08 per pound in 1999.

In the late 1990s, as a consumer boycott of Atlantic swordfish got underway and imports remained high, prices paid California fishermen for Pacific swordfish continued slipping. In 1999, fishermen received $2.74 per pound for Pacific swordfish, compared to $2.95 in 1980-$5.79 in 1997 dollars.

Finally, changing oceanography has influenced California fisheries as well, In the 1990s, for instance, squid landings rose rapidly from 29 million pounds in 1992 to 178 million pounds in 1996, generating revenues to fishermen of $27 million in that year. The increased abundance of squid is thought to be related to cooler water temperatures, although strong prices in China also encouraged greater fishing effort. After a warming period, however, squid catches declined to 6 million pounds in 1998, then rebounded to 200 million pounds in 1999.

Commercial Fishing Gear and Methods

As fishermen of different nationalities have settled in California in the last 150 years, they have introduced different methods of fishing from their home countries. The Portuguese fishermen who settled in the San Diego area introduced pole-and-line fishing for tuna. Italian and Yugoslavian fishermen who settled in San Pedro perfected the use of purse seines and introduced the power block for catching squid and sardines. Italian fishermen from the Ligurian Sea took up fishing in the Santa Barbara area, using traps to catch lobster and gillnets or hook-and-line to catch fish. In more recent years, fishermen from Vietnam have used gillnets in catching rockfish and nearshore species such as halibut and croaker.

Technological innovations spurred by the war effort during World War II brought still more changes to fishing technology. Besides the use of steel and lightweight fiberglass for boat hulls, war research developed lightweight synthetic nylon yarns that enabled the manufacture of larger, lighter nets. More powerful and reliable engines enabled fishermen to get to and from fishing grounds more quickly, while onboard refrigeration ensured that their catch did not spoil. Electronic equipment such as sonar, radar, and GPS, made it possible for fishermen to locate particular areas of the ocean with unprecedented accuracy and to locate schools of fish.

Innovation has continued. Satellite communications have made it possible for fishermen to communicate regularly and reliably with shore and among themselves, and to return to productive fishing grounds or to retrieve nets and traps. Satellite sensors also have provided fishermen with real-time pictures of currents and areas of productive waters, allowing them to search more efficiently for billfish or schools of tuna, for instance.

Off California, commercial fishermen use several basic types of fishing gear, including nets, hooks and lines, and traps, among others.

Gillnets: Gillnets are panels of net that may have different dimensions. Gillnets may be fished on the bottom, in midwater, or at the surface, and the size of their mesh-that is the openings in the net-will vary depending on the species of fish being sought. Regulations often set a minimum mesh size that is small enough to catch the "target" species of a particular size, but large enough to allow juvenile or other small fish to escape. For instance, the minimum mesh size for California halibut is 8-1/2 inches measured diagonally between knots, whereas the minimum mesh size for white seabass is 6 inches.

If the panel of net is set taut, fish become ensnared as they attempt to back out of the net and become caught either in their midsection or by their gills. When the net is set more loosely, it is called a trammel net. With this gear, fish become entangled as a fin or other part of the body becomes snagged and the fish becomes increasingly enmeshed as it struggles to free itself.

Gillnets may be fixed to the bottom or may be attached to a vessel that drifts with the currents. Depending on the species being sought, drift gillnets are set at or below the surface. When fishing for seabass or barracuda, for instance, fishermen set their nets at the surface and drift during the day. When fishing for swordfish or sharks, fishermen set their nets below the surface and drift at night. The size of the mesh differs, also. Drift gillnets set to catch white seabass must have a minimum mesh size of six inches, while the fishery for sharks and swordfish uses gillnets with a mesh size of 18-22 inches. To catch barracuda, fishermen use nets with a mesh size of three inches.

Over the years, the legislature adopted restrictions on the use of gillnets in many nearshore areas because of declines in some nearshore fish populations, conflicts with other fisheries and the incidental capture and drowning of seabirds and marine mammals. Proposition 132, passed by the voters in 1990, created a Marine Resources Protection Zone within three miles of the mainland coast, and in waters less than 70 fathoms or within one nautical mile of the Channel Islands, whichever is less. The initiative banned the use of gill and trammel nets in these waters beginning in 1994.

Trawls: Trawls are sock-shaped nets that taper from a wide mouth to a narrow tail called a codend. Trawls are towed behind a fishing vessel along the bottom or in midwater, depending on the species. The mesh sizes in trawls vary as well. For instance, shrimp and prawn trawls use 1-1/2 inch mesh, midwater trawls use 3-inch mesh to catch whiting and widow rockfish, groundfish trawls use 4-1/2 inch mesh, and trawls targeting California halibut use 7-1/2 inch mesh. Any organism that is larger than the size mesh in the trawl is captured and accumulates in the codend.

The rope or cable on the lower leading edge of a trawl towed along the bottom is usually protected by chain sinkers that stir organisms up from the sea bottom. The bottom rope may also be protected by rubber disks or bobbins that allow a trawl to be dragged over hard bottom that might otherwise snag the net. Such trawls are called roller rigs. Bottom trawls also vary in how high their opening is. Trawls used to catch shrimp and groundfish, for instance, have a low opening, whereas trawls fishing for other species have a high opening. The mouth of trawls may be held wide by otter boards that are attached to the two forward corners of the net; the boards act like wings and pull the net wide as it moves through the water.

Round-Hall Net: There are two types of round-haul nets: the lampara net and the purse-seine net. These nets are used to catch sardines, anchovies, herring, squid, bonito, mackerel, and tuna. Both types of round-hall nets consist of long panels of netting that are used to encircle a school of fish. The nets are pulled from the deck of a vessel by a skiff so that the net surrounds the fish. After a lampara net is deployed, the leadline at the bottom of the net is pulled until it closes the net into a scoop, and the catch is brought on board the boat.

In a purse-seine net, a smaller-meshed landing bag is at the end of the net. When the net has been set by the skiff, a line running through rings at the bottom of the net is drawn closed like a purse. The rings then are brought aboard, and the wings of the net are pulled aboard with a power block. The catch is captured in the bag of the net. Many fishermen now use drum seines, which retrieve the net via a large reel mounted at the stern of the vessel. Purse seines are used to catch tuna, mackerel, squid, sardines, and anchovies.

Hook and Line: California fishermen use several types of hook and line fishing methods. The most familiar perhaps is the rod and reel, in which a one or more hooks is attached to a line that runs along a pole and is retracted by means of a mechanical reel. Whether or not a pole is used, reels may be hand-powered or mechanized.

In California, where surface or so-called pelagic longlines are prohibited, set longlines may be used. These are lines of hooks run horizontally across the seafloor. The line is held in place by anchors, while floats suspend the line above the seafloor, with hooks attached at regular intervals. In some areas along the California coast, no more than 150 hooks may be attached to set longlines. This gear is used to catch rockfish and sablefish.

A related type of hook-and-line gear is called stick gear, which is used almost entirely in the nearshore fishery for live fish. Stick gear is a series of hooks attached to a weighted rod by short lines. This gear is placed on the seafloor. In jigging, a vertical line of lures is moved up and down by hand or mechanically. This method is used principally to catch squid.

In using troll gear to catch salmon, up to six stainless steel lines are run from hydraulic spools to outrigger poles from which they are spread and suspended from the boat. Hooks, baited with herring or anchovy or with artificial lures, are attached to the mainline with monofilament leaders at roughly 18-foot intervals. A weight attached to the end of each wire line keeps the line at a particular depth. The lines are then pulled slowly through the water-an activity called "trolling." To catch albacore tuna, fishermen use a simpler arrangement of several lines towed on the surface.

Trap or Pot: Traps are generally constructed of galvanized wire that may or may not be vinyl coated. Escape ports or rings allow undersized lobsters, crabs, or fish to escape. Metal fastenings or cotton twine dissolve after a time in sea water allowing the catch to escape if the trap is lost. Buoys painted with the fisherman's permit number are attached to strings of traps. As winter arrives, traps are set in deeper and deeper water. fishermen use traps to catch spot prawns, spiny lobster, rock crabs, rockfish, cabezon, and sheephead.

Diving Gear: In taking sea urchins or sea cucumbers, commercial divers use a "hookah" system, rather than the usual tank we associate with scuba diving. A hookah system is simply a long air hose attached to an air compressor on the deck of a boat. Divers may spend as long as six hours a day underwater. Animals are harvested by hand so the rate of harvest depends on the diver, not the size of the boat.

A small number of species often dominate the catch in different types of gear. For instance, according to National Marine Fisheries Service statistics, California commercial fishermen caught 5,837 metric tons of fish on troll lines in 1997. Of this 2,752 metric tons was chinook salmon, 2,729 metric tons was albacore tuna, and 254 metric tons was chilipepper rockfish. California squid, Pacific sardine, and chub mackerel made up 80 percent of 164,882 metric tons of fish caught in gillnets and seines. Longline catch was dominated by sablefish, swordfish, and albacore tunas, which accounted for 45 percent of the 5,400 metric ton in catch.

All these gears catch many other different types of fish, some of which are retained. Pink shrimp made up 92 percent of shrimp trawl landings, while the other eight percent was made up of several dozen other species including California halibut, rockfish, and flatfish. Similarly, groundfish trawls, whose landings were principally Pacific hake, Dover sole, and longspine thornyhead, also include significant amounts of rockfish, sablefish, skates, flounder, and sole. For the most part, little is known about what is caught and discarded in different fisheries. The impact of different types of gear on fisheries habitat is even less understood.

Similarly, different types of gear dominate the catches of different species, although there often is a mix. In 1997, according to statistics maintained by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 68 percent of cabezon were caught on lines while 31 percent were caught in traps. Nearly all Pacific sanddabs and several species of rockfish were caught in trawls. Of 28 metric tons of white seabass caught commercially, 84 percent was by gillnet.

The size of vessels used by California fishermen ranges widely, from skiffs and kayaks in the nearshore live-fish fishery to large purse seiners in the squid, tuna, and mackerel fisheries. Most fishing vessels, from trawlers to trap boats, fall between these two extremes. Size plays a major role in who fishes in some areas. Generally, large vessels are more mobile, able to move from area to area and to stay offshore, while smaller vessels are more resident and more likely to be day-boats.

Finally, catching and landing fish and shellfish is but one step in a process that includes processing, distributing, preparing, and consuming seafood products. In 1997, there were 141 processing plants employing roughly 7,000 people in California. Another 393 wholesale distributors reported employing 4,791 people. Other businesses engaged in building, maintaining, and supplying fishing vessels rely greatly on commercial fishing, as well as recreational fishing. All of these activities generate jobs and income in local communities and regions. According to a 1992 study, commercial fishing in California generated nearly 17,000 jobs and $554 million in total income.