California Current ecosystem scientists told the Pacific Fishery Management Council on March 20 that a strong 2023–24 El Niño delayed spring upwelling but that the system experienced strong, rapid upwelling later in 2024 that helped rebuild nearshore productivity and forage availability.

The CCIEA (California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment) team presented the 2024–25 California Current Ecosystem Status Report and a set of candidate topics for the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) to review in 2025. Scientists said the year combined both positive signals — abundant juvenile forage species, higher krill and copepod abundances after the upwelling resumed and a 3% coastwide revenue increase driven by market squid — and persistent stressors including an offshore marine heat wave, multiple harmful algal bloom (HAB) events that affected shellfish fisheries, continued salmon closures in California, and increased humpback whale entanglements.

Why it matters: the ESR (ecosystem status report) is designed to give managers concise ecosystem indicators they can use in fishery and protected‑species decisions. The council must decide which ecosystem science topics it wants the SSC to review in 2025; that review can change how indicators are calculated and which signals are incorporated into risk tables and management advice.

Key findings and context

- Ocean and climate: Scientists reported a strong El Niño in winter–spring 2024 that suppressed upwelling early, followed by a rapid transition in April to unusually strong and consistent upwelling that kept much of the coast cooler and productive despite a persistent offshore heat wave. Appendix D of the ESR includes climate forecast materials used to make 2025 outlooks.

- Biological responses: Zooplankton and forage species such as juvenile anchovy, juvenile rockfish and juvenile Pacific hake increased after the spring upwelling resumed. Krill and lipid‑rich northern copepods rebounded in many regions, supporting predators. However, sea lion pup counts were lower early in the year and there were seabird and marine mammal strandings linked to HABs and prey shortages.

- Fisheries and communities: Total coastwide landings fell about 12% from 2023, driven largely by a roughly 31% decline in Pacific whiting landings. The California salmon fishery was closed for a second consecutive year because of low returns; crab and market squid were relative bright spots. CCIEA analysts noted a continued decline in revenue diversification across West Coast fleets, which can increase economic vulnerability for vessel owners and port communities.

- Whale entanglements and bycatch risk: Preliminary 2024 reports show confirmed humpback whale entanglements were higher for humpbacks than in 2023 and contributed to management restrictions in the Dungeness crab fishery (closures, gear‑depth restrictions and gear reductions by state). CCIEA emphasized habitat compression and nearshore forage as contributors to entanglement risk.

Council process and requests

The CCIEA team proposed two candidate review topics for the SSC: (1) incorporation of new data types and indices, such as glider data, into the ESR and (2) continued ESR modernization by moving technical documentation into appendices and web‑hosted methods. The SSC and advisory bodies advised that topic (1) is appropriate for technical review if concrete examples are provided; they recommended the SSC ecosystem subcommittee review new indicators and advised the council to support further integration of fishermen’s observations and eDNA data where possible.

Council members commended the clarity and accessibility of the report and encouraged continued outreach to fishermen through roundtables and ways to integrate on‑the‑water observations. Several advisory bodies — the Ecosystem Workgroup, Ecosystem Advisory Subpanel and Habitat Committee — supported the ESR and suggested specific clarifications: split climate appendices where helpful, track forecast accuracy over more than one year, consider interactive versions of fishery participation networks, and make social‑vulnerability and revenue‑diversification metrics easier to access.

What the council will do next

Council staff noted the SSC and advisory‑body recommendations and proposed transmitting those recommendations to the CCIEA team for their 2025 work plan. The council did not take a formal vote; members discussed endorsing the SSC recommendations and asked staff to compile advisory‑body input for the CCIEA team. The SSC indicated a half‑day technical review (webinar or in‑person) would likely be sufficient for each candidate topic if the team supplies focused examples.

Ending

The CCIEA team emphasized continued uncertainty in seasonal forecasts and encouraged more survey effort in spring and summer 2025 to track how a likely neutral ENSO state and a probable offshore marine heat wave affect coastal productivity and species distributions. Several council members asked staff to forward advisory‑body suggestions to the CCIEA team and to plan for an SSC subcommittee review subject to workload and timing.