Final technical report - Baseline surveys of central California marine protected areas from 2007-2009: Quick-look report submitted to the California Ocean Protection Council

On September 21, 2007, 29 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were established along the central California coast from Pigeon Point to Point Conception. The 1999 Marine Life Protection Act that led to the formation of the new MPAs specifically required California MPAs to be monitored and evaluated. In preparation for this requirement, in the winter and spring of 2007 we conducted a series of five workshops with fisheries scientists and the fishing communities of Half Moon Bay, Monterey, Morro Bay, and Port San Luis, California to develop protocols for monitoring MPAs using hook-and-line fishing gear. In the summers and falls of 2007, 2008, and 2009 we used the protocols developed at the workshops to collect information about species composition, catch rates, and sizes of nearshore fishes in the Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas, and Point Buchon State Marine Reserves (MPAs), and corresponding reference (REF) sites. In 2008, we conducted additional workshops with members of the live-fish fishery to develop protocols for monitoring MPAs using trap fishing gear. Trap fishing protocols were used in 2008 to assess the Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas, and Cambria MPAs and REF sites. In 2009, trap sampling occurred in the Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas, and Cambria MPAs. Using hook-and-line survey methods, we completed 47 surveys in the fall of 2007, 48 surveys in the summer and fall of 2008, and 24 fishing trips in the summer and fall of 2009 in the Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Piedras Blancas and Point Buchon MPA and REF sites, for a total of 115 hook-and-line fishing surveys from 2007 – 2009. Using trap survey techniques, we completed 43 fishing trips in 2008 and 25 trips in 2009, for a total of 68 sampling trips from 2008 – 2009 in the Año Nuevo, Point Lobos, Cambria, and Piedras Blancas MPA and REF sites (Table 1). During these surveys, all caught fishes were identified, measured, tagged with external T-bar anchor tags with individual identification numbers (if deemed able to sustain handling and tagging), and released at location of capture. To date we have worked with a total of 12 Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessels (CPFVs), 4 commercial trap-fishing vessels, and 415 volunteer anglers, who spent a total of 1,121 hours hook-and-line fishing, and 3,445 hours trapping. This combined effort resulted in a total catch of 26,262 fishes comprised of 42 species, and a total of 22,551 fishes released with tags. After each field sampling season, we held workshops in Morro Bay, Moss Landing, and Half Moon Bay to describe the results of the fieldwork, encourage project feedback, and receive suggestions from the fishing community. Each year, a total of about 40 people from the fishing community reviewed the data at these meetings. We also produced and distributed the following project summary.