The Sustainable Fisheries Division administers fishery management, grant, trade, and industry services aimed at recreational and commercial fisheries in the region to provide a sustainable harvest that provides the greatest overall benefit to the region. Working with the Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, the region helps develop policies and regulations for fishing in the ocean between two and three hundred miles from the California coast.

The Habitat Conservation Division reviews and evaluates the impacts of water resource development activities on marine, estuarine, and anadromous fishery resources and the habitats that support them. The division provides formal mitigation recommendations for input through National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental review process and final incorporation in Federal regulatory permits and licenses for in-water developments based upon these reviews.

In large part, the Regional Habitat Protection Policy governs those reviews. The Habitat Conservation Division also conducts fieldwork and extensive interagency coordination to ensure measures to mitigate damage, prevent adverse impacts, and enhance fishery resources.

The Protected Resources Division is responsible for conservation and management programs involving endemic and migratory marine mammals and endangered species populations within the region and Pacific waters adjacent to California.

The division develops regulations and management measures to protect, conserve, and restore marine mammal and endangered species populations, including anadromous fish. It conducts consultations under the Federal Endangered Species Act to ensure that activities do not adversely affect endangered species, including controversial consultations on major water development projects in California. The division reviews the status and makes determinations relative to listing species under the Endangered Species Act. It coordinates the activities of recovery teams in preparing recovery plans and monitoring their implementation.

The Protected Resources Division also reviews and monitors research and public display permits for marine mammals and endangered species. It develops and distributes public information and educational materials about marine mammals and endangered species in the region.

The Southwest Fisheries Science Center is the research arm of NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Region. The Center consists of three laboratories located in La Jolla, Pacific Grove, and Santa Cruz, California.

The Science Center conducts marine biological, economic, and oceanographic research at these laboratories. Center scientists gather and analyze data on living marine resources and their environment throughout the Pacific and in the Antarctic. The ultimate purpose of the data collection and analysis is for protection and management of these resources, to ensure that fish, marine mammal, and sea turtle populations remain at sustainable and healthy levels, and that the most effective fishing regulations and international fisheries treaties are implemented.

The Santa Cruz Laboratory (formerly of Tiburon, California)—a component of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center—is located at the western edge of the city of Santa Cruz, adjoining UC Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory and a growing complex of marine research facilities at this site.

Research at the Santa Cruz Lab is focused on Pacific Coast Groundfish and Pacific Salmon. Results of this research are used by the Pacific and Klamath Fishery Management Councils to manage fisheries and by NOAA Fisheries Southwest Region staff to manage threatened and endangered species.

Laboratory scientists study causes of variability in abundance and health of fish populations, analyze ecological relations in marine communities, and study the economics of exploiting and protecting natural resources. They also assess the stocks of species targeted by various fisheries and assist in evaluating potential impacts of human activities on threatened or endangered species.

Rodney McInnis is the acting Regional Administrator for the Southern Region and is the representative for the Biodiversity Council. “NOAA Fisheries recognizes the importance of the California Biodiversity Council,” adds Mr. McInnis. “The role it plays in fostering communication and cooperation among sometimes competing entities to ensure sustainable and healthly ecosystems is critical to important marine resources, such as Pacific Salmon. Partnerships developed through the Council have been invaluable and we look forward to continuing these partnerships into the 21st century for the benefit of this and future generations.”