Distribution, Biomass, and Demography of Coastal Pelagic Fishes in the California Current Ecosystem During Summer 2019 Based on Acoustic-Trawl Sampling

This report provides: 1) a detailed description of the acoustic-trawl method (ATM) used by NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) for direct assessments of the dominant species of coastal pelagic species (CPS; i.e., Pacifc Sardine Sardinops sagax, Northern Anchovy Engraulis mordax, Pacifc Mackerel Scomber japonicus, Jack Mackerel Trachurus symmetricus, and Pacifc Herring Clupea pallasii) in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) of ̇ the west coast of North America; and 2) estimates of the biomasses, distributions, and demographies of those CPS in the survey area between 13 June and 9 September 2019. The core survey region spanned most of the continental shelf between the northern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC) and San Diego, CA. Throughout the core region, NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker (hereafter, Lasker) sampled along transects oriented approximately perpendicular to the coast, from the shallowest navigable depth (~30 m) to either a distance of 35 nmi or to the 1,000 fathom (~1830 m) isobath, whichever is farthest. To estimate the biomass of CPS in the nearshore region, to ~10 m depth, where sampling by Lasker is unsafe, two fshing vessels (F/Vs Lisa Marie and Long Beach Carnage) and one unmanned surface vehicle (USV) sampled along 5 nmi-long transects spaced 5 nmi-apart along the mainland coast between Cape Flattery, WA and San Diego, CA, and around Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina Island in the Southern CA Bight (SCB).