Conservation of Forage Fish in the California Current: an Ecosystem Assessment

Mid-trophic level forage species are an important component of marine food webs which directly support marine birds, mammals and fish of societal concern, but are generally under-studied in most marine ecosystems. In the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), primary forage species include a variety of coastal pelagic fish (e.g. sardine, anchovy), juveniles of predatory fishes (e.g. age 0-1 rockfish, hake), and invertebrates (e.g. squid, krill). The CCLME encompasses three countries, Mexico, the U.S., and Canada, which are ecologically and politically very diverse. Within these countries, forage species management falls under various jurisdictions including federal and state agencies, and Tribes. In the U.S., the California Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) and the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management and Sustainable Fisheries Acts require that ecological interactions and dependencies be incorporated into fishery management plans (FMPs) and regulatory decisions, but this has been infrequently implemented. U.S. management agencies are now grappling with development of ecosystem fisheries management plans (EFMP). Our objectives here are to provide an overview what we know and do not know regarding forage fish in the CCLME, including climate/oceanographic effects, forage in relation to predator needs (e.g., recent salmon and seabird failures), current fisheries and management status of forage species, challenges of conservation in the face of natural population fluctuations of pelagic schooling species, difficulties in managing for juvenile fishes as forage, the intersection of science and policy, and potential approaches for strategically improving forage species management. In California, for example, squid are the most lucrative commercial fishery, followed by sardine. Regarding the harvest of krill, this is banned in the U.S., exists at a very low level in Canada as a province-regulated fishery, and although does not yet exist in Mexico, there is the potential of a developing krill fishery for use in aquaculture. The increased importance of forage species to commercial fisheries revenue and aquaculture increases the urgency of improving management and understanding the implications of removing forage species from the ecosystem.