Senate Joint Fisheries — 2026-08-04

Well, thank you so much, Senator, for both letting me kick it off here today and your constancy over all of these years holding this annual hearing in the name of Zeke Grader to ensure that we continue to focus on this sector. We're a big, dynamic state, and sometimes priorities like this can get overlooked if there aren't leaders that are requiring that we do that. I've been reflective recently as we come to the end of the Newsom administration. It was eight years ago where I I attended my first Z-Graders forum in the crab feed the night before, and I confess it was both intimidating and pretty energizing to be in that room and to learn these issues. So I'll just take a little bit of time to kick things off and really strike two themes, the first being perseverance, the second being progress. We have navigated together through some really challenging times. Over the last eight years, three of those have been the driest period in California state history. We have experienced a record-breaking three years of closure of the commercial salmon fishing season and all manners of impacts on the men and women that make their lives fishing in California, as well as tribal governments who are driving the way forward and really all of us who care about the environment. And we're here for the same reason, because our fisheries are about jobs, they're about tribal sovereignty, they're about our culture, our identity, our economy, recreation. And so I want to start us off by saying this is a moment where we can reflect on some good news. And that is, of course, the opening of the commercial season for the first time in four years. I think we recognize that, one, it's a limited opening, and we'll hear more about that, but it's good news. Salmon populations, which are traditionally really spiky, responded well to successive years of wet conditions. We also hope and like to think that some of the work that we've been doing collectively together is helping in that recovery. But it matters greatly to us that commercial fishing can happen this year as well as recreational fishing. I think it's also worth pointing out that another note of optimism is salmon and steelhead are showing up in water bodies where they haven't been for decades and decades. I had a chance to learn about the Alameda Creek restoration in the Bay Area, where Caltrout led a restoration project with the support of PG&E to bring back steelhead and salmon in that stream for the first time since the 1950s. Over 2 fish in Pouda Creek not too far from Sacramento Again and again the work that happening on the ground with so many partners is delivering restoration and recovery But we also clear on these challenges and these challenges are getting greater You've pointed this out. A changing climate means more challenging conditions for our fisheries, and particularly our salmon fisheries, those species that rely on cold water. We have more variable river flows. The drier periods are drier and longer. We have been experiencing catastrophic wildfire across our state in the west, which has major impacts on the watershed and water quality. That impacts the survival of these fish. And then warmer oceans and the marine heat wave that we have recently experienced that we'll hear more about in the panel. And then to be candid, ongoing pressures around how do we balance the water that's flowing through our rivers for the environment and our fishing sector and 40 million Californians and the cities and towns and other parts of our economy. It has been challenging. And we are experiencing greater pressure as other watersheds that we rely on, including the Colorado River Basin, are in really an unprecedented 20-year drought. And I'm in the middle of those negotiations as well. So we have both these climatic pressures, and then we have the pressures of a big dynamic growing state. But within that, we've been able to generate a lot of progress. So I want to spend the remainder of my time just highlighting some of that progress. So over two years ago, we decided to bring all the actions that Craig and Fish and Wildlife and other partners were making progress on together in what we call this salmon strategy. It's really a strategy for restoring and protecting our aquatic ecosystems. And there are five core priorities. Remove barriers and modernize infrastructure, restore habitat, protect and restore flows, modernize hatcheries, and bring in technology and innovative management. And so when we established this salmon strategy, we set forward some key actions that we needed to get done this administration. It's one thing to set long-term goals, and that's important, but holding ourselves accountable for action. So in each of those five areas, we've made real progress. We have released an update to our stram and strategy each year, and it's a little bit numeric, but we're really excited of 71 action items. 49% of those, almost half, are fully completed with the rest underway. So starting with barrier removal, obviously the Klamath leads the way, thanks to our tribal leaders, some of whom are here today to talk about their experience. It shows what's possible. Agencies like mine for decades told tribal leaders that it was an impossible project, and it got done, and it's inspired the world. The largest river restoration in American history. And we see how fisheries respond when we take big, dramatic actions like that. So we'll let our panelists talk more about that. But it's worth noting that our Department of Fish and Wildlife, thanks to your investments, has invested over $24 million in habitat restoration to complement dam removal, which is having an active role in the recovery of the fisheries. It's also worth noting that local and state partners haven't stopped there. We hear a lot about the Klamath, but in the last couple of years alone, on over 10 other projects, albeit smaller projects, to remove barriers and restore spawning and rearing habitat in other tributaries across California, with another six underway. So we need to continue to focus on removing outmoded infrastructure and restoring that habitat. As it relates to other habitat improvements, big progress. I'll note that just north of Sacramento last winter was the first time the so-called Big Notch Project actually went into operation, bringing juvenile salmon onto the floodplain, ultimately connecting with the Yolo Basin and that bypass. It is the largest floodplain salmon-rearing habitat project in California history. and it's going to be followed very closely by the Tisdale Weir Rehab and Fish Passage Project. We know that it's about removing barriers that bisect habitat, but we also know it's about helping fish get out of these channelized rivers, particularly salmon and migratory species, so that they can actually get on the historic floodplains. It's also about improving habitat in our ocean. We were really proud to support the tribal leaders that drove forward on the federal Shumash National Marine Sanctuary, which President Biden designated. That is the first National Marine Sanctuary proposed and led by tribal leaders, but it also has a management plan that centers on improving biodiversity. So we see that as actually having real beneficial impact. So removing barriers, expanding habitat, restoring habitat, improving flows. I think everybody agrees that restoring fisheries, particularly fishery fish that depend on our freshwater, includes restoring flows. And so leaders that you'll hear from today really drove the way in protecting flows for the salmon on the Scott and Shasta rivers. And you all know as legislators under AB 263, the Water Resources Control Board is implementing minimum stream flow for the recovery of salmon on those tributaries to the Klamath. Really important precedent that we're excited to advance across the state. I think it's also worth noting a huge potential milestone later this year when the state water board adopts the update to the Bay Delta plan, literally decades in the making. A critical piece of that is improving and restoring flows in the San Joaquin and the Sacramento systems and through the delta. We know fish recovery and fisheries recovery is, yes, it's about barrier removal and habitat, but it's also about restoring flows. We have about 60 seconds. Great. And then critical to the commercial fishing sector is improving our hatcheries. And so we're really excited to highlight the modernization of the San Joaquin Salmon Conservation Research Facility and Fall Creek Hatchery and the feasibility studies on modernizing two more hatcheries. And the last piece is technology and innovation. That includes bringing salmon above dams in the North Yuba River and implementing a new tagging system through the Department of Fish and Wildlife to better understand how our hatchery fish are faring. So overall, I would say, you know, we have major challenges ahead as our environment continues to change and we have this tenuous balance as our state continues to grow. But I do think we need to be continue to be held accountable for making progress in these five areas. Thank you so much for the opportunity to kick things off.

I'm Craig Schumann, Marine Region Manager with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and I'm honored to present the State of the Fishery on behalf of our new director, Megan Hurdle. Director Hurdle expresses her regrets for not being here today and asks that I share her appreciation for your work and the work of the committee and to reiterate her and the department's commitment to working collaboratively with elected officials, tribes, industry, NGOs, and all parties interested in the marine environment. As we typically do, I'll share some highlights from this past year and some priorities for the future. I'd also like to point folks to our annual By the Numbers report. This is a report we started putting together about 10 or so years ago to summarize all of our work. Before I start, I just want to acknowledge and thank you, Senator McGuire, for your many years of service to the state and to this committee. We've been doing this a long time together. You have been a tireless champion for California's fisheries, fishermen, and fishing communities, and your leadership will be deeply missed. Moving into the state of the fisheries, so calendar year 2025, California Commercial Fisheries landed about 217 million pounds of fish worth about $212 million. This is a 30% increase by weight over the 10-year average and a 15% increase by value. Those are non-adjusted values over the 10-year average. This is driven primarily by market squid of 174 million pounds worth $83 million, and Dungeness crab coming in second with 8.8 million pounds worth $44.2 million. This was about half a million pounds more than were landed the prior year, but about $6.5 million less than the value of the prior year. So just to show how those market fluctuations can really impact the value of the fishery. Our ground fish combined for about 13 million pounds worth $19 million. And then rounding out the top four is California spiny lobster, about a million pounds worth $12 million. This was the second highest landing in pounds in the past 10 years, but it was the third lowest X vessel value over that same time frame. And this was due to a very steep drop in the price per pound of lobster at about $12 per pound. The 10-year average, it ranged between $15 to $20 per pound, with a high of $24 per pound in the 2021 season. This low price is likely due to tariffs and increased competition in the Chinese market, as most of our lobster gets exported to that region. We are currently working with the fleet and the California Fishing Game Commission on options to bolster our domestic market. On the recreational side, our commercial recreational fishery survey collected data from almost 80,000 angler trips. estimating about 1.9 million recreational fishing trips catching about 7.2 million fish. And finally, our statewide MPA network was recognized as the international gold standard for marine conservation by being awarded the IUCN's green list status. At the same time, the Fishing Game Commission is evaluating petitions from tribes and stakeholders proposing changes to the network, and we expect that we'll be wrapping up this phase of it by the end of this year. I'm going to spend a few more minutes talking about salmon. It's going to be the highlight for the day, but it's just so important. Thanks to the work of Secretary Crowfoot, the work of the salmon strategy for hot or drier future, and really those three years of really good rain. We have a commercial salmon season, again, and I just cannot overstate how important that is to our fishing communities. We have inland recreational ocean salmon for the first time in three years of closure on the main stem Sacramento and Klamath rivers. and we have increased recreational ocean salmon opportunities I was fortunate enough to spend some time down in Morro Bay during one of the openers and just amazing to see what a salmon season will bring to a local community The ports are bustling, and it's not just the launch ramps. You get back from the launch ramp, you get back from a day of fishing, you spend the night at the hotel, you go to a restaurant, you're spending money, you're going to the coffee shop in the morning. All of these things combined really bring back the fabric of our small coastal ports and communities. New this year, the department has implemented in-season management for both the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries, fulfilling a key management objective in the salmon strategy. This is to keep harvest within our seasonal and area-based harvest limits. Last week, in-season action was needed to close the fishery in the Klamath management zone and the season in the Fort Bragg management area was shortened in response to higher than anticipated recreational catch rates. We continue to track catch rates very closely and encourage anglers to check our website before they go fishing and make sure we haven't taken any in-season action. The department has continued to implement and pilot a portfolio of hatchery release strategies, including trucking fish to the bay and ocean for direct nighttime releases and net pen acclimated releases, as well as early unfed fry releases. The added flexibility of having different release strategies allows the department to avoid releasing fish into the river when conditions are poor, dramatically improving survival. These alternative release strategies, particularly early fly releases, are made possible by funding from Prop 4, and this is for the implementation of parentage-based tagging, or PBT. This is a non-invasive genetic tagging method that samples hatchery broodstock DNA to assign age and origin to offspring. The department has made significant progress on implementation of PBT monitoring, including collection of tissue samples for genetic analysis from all inland sectors in the Sacramento River Basin, including at hatcheries, on spawning grounds, and in the inland salmon fishery. And we've begun pilot PBT tissue collection monitoring in ocean commercial and recreational fisheries and in the San Joaquin River Basin. Looking ahead, what do we expect? So this last year was the first year of authorized pop-up gear in our Dungeons Crab Fisher. We'll probably hear a little bit more about that coming up. 20 vessels landed about 151,000 pounds of crab worth $1.2 million. We expect to see continued expansion in both the crab fishery and other fixed-gear fisheries as appropriate and relevant to those specific fisheries in an attempt to minimize entanglement risk and maximize fishing opportunities. We continue to have a laser-sharp focus on kelp loss on recovery. This is especially important with the current warm water we're experiencing and the potential impacts from El Nino that you'll hear about later. We are beginning to finalize the kelp restoration and management plan to guide restoration and management efforts and anticipate presenting the draft management framework to the Fishing Game Commission Marine Resources Committee in November, at which point it will then undergo peer review. Demoic acid. So this is something we didn't talk about at our early hearings. This is something new that we now talk about every year. We are, if trends hold, we are expecting a bad year for demoic acid. Just this last Friday, Acting Director Termini, at the recommendation of the California Department of Public Health and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, lifted the closure for northern anchovy and Pacific sardine in the Monterey Bay area and at the same time enacted a closure for the recreational razor clam fishery in the Del Norte County. As you know we've been battling that closure in Humboldt County region that recreational fishery has been closed since May of 2024 despite repeated testing with us and the health agencies to try to get that fishery open Finally, I want to end on groundfish. So groundfish are the bread and butter, the backbone of our commercial fish, kind of the unsung heroes. They don't get a lot of credit. Last year we talked about quillback rockfish and the good news that allowed us to significantly expand fishing opportunities in Central and Northern California. This year, we expect the National Marine Fisheries Service to declare yellow-eye rockfish rebuilt. So not only is this 50 years ahead of schedule, this is after 20 years of precautionary and economically impactful management to avoid yellow-eye rockfish. We expect 2027 will bring new fishing opportunities, including a brief one-month window where retention of yellow-eye at low levels will be allowed for both commercial and recreational sectors. similarly in 2027 we also expect there will be a one-month opportunity to retain cow cod at low levels this has been a stock that has been completely off limit for over 25 years that people have not been so we've got commercial fishermen that were not alive when rockfish were able when the cow cod rockfish were able to be retained um this is going back i was thinking this is going back to the y2k gaze when we thought the world was going to come to an end because our computers thought it was going to be 1,900, not 2,000. These last two examples give me hope and exemplify that when we work together to implement sound fisheries management, we can maintain sustainable stocks and bring back those that have been depleted, and in doing so, support the hardworking men and women on commercial and recreational fishing industries. Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Before I get into my remarks, I just want to start by recognizing the legacy of the chair. You know, you have been a very thoughtful, passionate leader. Oh, come on, take it. For the state fisheries and hatcheries and aquaculture sector. So I'm sure we can expect nothing less of you on future endeavors. So thank you so much for your leadership. It's important to your district, but it's also important in the state of California. Thank you so much. And I'll be brief before we get to Crowfoot, so let me just say, as chair of the Assembly of Water, Parks, and Wildlife, you know, we're certainly very in tune and keenly aware of the foundation of every ecosystem is going to be water, and every community, every economy. We rely on healthy rivers, lakes, and oceans every day, often without thinking much about it, because they're sort of buried, right? And I think that the work of this committee, but also the folks that are here that have dedicated their time and energies to this topic, and it is complex, is nothing short of heroic and tremendously important to the state of California. it. So without further ado, I recognize that we are really striving to improve fishery health, and that reminds us of water quality, climate change, resource management, things like that that directly affect life not only above the surface but below the surface. And so I'm just delighted to be here, and I hear from all of you quite regularly, and I look forward to, you know, just working together, we'll get somewhere. But when we're relying on Mother Nature and her different ways now with climate change, the struggles are real and extremely challenging. So thank you for having me, and I look forward to more hearing. Thank you so

Appreciate your focus on this. You know, for the salmon fishery, the Sacramento is the most important river in California. That much is clear. It's the second largest river system as a salmon fishery on the west coast next to the Columbia. The Klamath used to be the third. So while we can do great things for other rivers, particularly coastal rivers and streams where temperatures are remaining pretty cold and will remain pretty cold, the salmon fishery is greatly impacted by what happens to these species on Sacramento. Big challenge, obviously, with climate change, warming temperatures, and variable flows, as we pointed out, with climate change. There's clear correlation. There's no doubt that the driest three years in the state's history, 20, 21, 22, resulted in the closures of 23, 24, and 25 because of the three-year salmon life cycle. But we also know that Sacramento is the largest river volumetrically for the state's water supply. And therein lies this really challenging balance. How do we balance the water for communities in the economy and fisheries? I'll note that at the end of 2022, the end of that driest three-year period, we had almost 6 million Californians underwater rationing. And we were actively planning for $20 million to be underwater rationing had not those 9 to 17 atmospheric rivers materialized just a month later. At the same time, we knew that the salmon fishery was going to be under existential crisis as a result of that dry period. So we're in a really challenging balancing, I don't want to say a balancing act, but constantly a balancing position. I will say I am optimistic that the Water Board's update of its Bay Delta plan will bring improvement. It issued its draft earlier this year. It is slated to issue its final update later this year. And at least the draft calls for improved flows as well as habitat commitments or commitments to construct a lot of habitat. We know that the Sacramento needs more flow and more off-channel habitat. And that needs to be the commitment of this administration while we're here, which is a short time, but then for the next administration as well.

Yes, I think to highlight the importance of the different release strategies and the value of the hatcheries to help us weather those storms of, you know, we can't predict Mother Nature, as the Vice Chair said. and I often say Mother Nature bats last, and so we're at her whim. And so because of the delicate life cycle of salmon and all of the balancing that needs to be done, looking at a combination of hatcheries, release strategies, making sure our hatcheries are funded and are operating efficiently restoration projects where we can removing barriers so salmon can get to that cold clear water wherever they can Those are all the things that we be working on If you want to talk a little bit about federal, where the state is is much different than where the federal government is currently at. And that's going to continue to pose real significant challenges as we move forward, particularly on environmental and climate policy.

Well, I'll start by saying the federal government's announcement that it is seeking to reinterpret the Federal Endangered Species Act to suggest that the destruction of an endangered species habitat isn't harm is highly problematic. And it's of concern. And that there are federally listed species that are, of course, really critical to fisheries. Thanks to the legislature and the governor's foresight, there is under state law, our Department of Fish and Wildlife is assessing the degradation of the loss of protection at the federal level and how we can potentially backstop those protections. So I'd say, one, the attack on the Federal Endangered Species Act is challenging and problematic. Two is the lack of understanding of our federal leadership in Washington, D.C., that we need our rivers to connect to the ocean, both for our environment but also to protect water quality, and that gets to our cities. I do want to say and share that there have been good on-the-ground partnerships with the folks who are – and I'll say before I say that, I'll say the gutting of the federal agencies is another big challenge. I mean, we're seeing our federal agencies lose, you know, over a third of their workforce in 18 to 24 months, and that impacts management. But then I will say the folks that have stuck on, you know, the federal career civil servants that are doing this work have remained partners. So huge challenges from this federal administration, but we're clear-eyed about them. A couple other thoughts. The Coastal Zone Management Act is something that we're actively tracking as well, and the importance of consistency determination from some of our sister agencies with federal rules outside of state waters. And then the federal funding. So we finally got the announcement of the 2024 salmon disaster money. It was a year late. We've got it. We've got $21.3 million of federal funding now. We're still waiting for the grant to arrive, at which point we can then start building the spend plan and get that money out to the affected fishermen from the 2024 season. And we're still waiting on the 2025 disaster. So there's a number of federal funding streams that have been slowed or delayed or held up. that are really important to the work we do.

Just a quick question. As we're, you know, I'm hearing these stories about enforcement of marine protected areas, and we've got a long coastline, certainly, but I've seen the recent news about wildlife officers. making arrests for abalone and spiny lobster poaching and illegal suction dredging. And I'm just curious if you could talk just a little bit more about the enforcement capacity and whether you're exploring any new strategies or technologies that would help us cover this rather large area.

Well, here's to getting the information before you come.

Thank you. Any additional questions? Yeah, please.

Yeah, so this is part of the dynamic on the Sacramento River, of course, because these salmon need cold water, and there's a cold water pool behind the Shasta Dam in Lake Shasta. So, again, it's a constant challenge and a bit of a balancing act for reclamation around when they will release and how much they will release. I can tell you that while I not the expert in these conversations our Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Water Resources Control Board figures into those discussions for the protection of particularly endangered species And as I understand it this year these conversations despite what we read about coming from Washington D the Bureau of Reclamation has been transparent with our state agencies about what it will do. If there is a need for more transparency with our fishing sector or, for that matter, the agricultural sector that often has different opinions, we're glad to help provide that. Moving forward, that cold water management is absolutely essential to not only the survival of the salmon species, but the recovery.

Well, thank you. I'm not going to let you have the last word, though, which is, you know, this, as your colleague said, this forum has maintained accountability. I was speaking from the executive branch because we have to come before you and, frankly, the fishing sector every year. and talk about tough issues and report on our progress and talk through challenges. So your steadfastness with actually holding this, and I know how hard all your schedules are, but year after year after year, it's a tradition I hope moves forward.

Those quarterly crab meetings, there we go. Good times. There we go. Hey, but I am really grateful for the two of you.

All right, thank you. My name is Crystal Robinson, Senior Environmental Scientist for California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and I'll be presenting today on the Klamath Dam removal, restoration, and a fishery population since volitional passage was restored in October of 2024, and this project was identified in detail in the Governor's statement strategy. I wanted to start first with an abbreviated timeline of the background of how we got here. So in late September of 2002, the Lower Klamath River experienced a large fish kill. It was estimated 60,000 adults and immortalities due to a combination of environmental factors. This event really kicked off discussions and advocacy on how to best mitigate future fish kills in the Klamath. Water quality impacts were identified as the leading cause, and so the push to dam removal was accelerated. by the expiration of Pacific course 50 year license for operation. Water users tribes advocacy groups and Pacific core through a multi year restoration negotiation process came up with the climate basin restoration act and hydroelectric settlement agreement. The agreement was later amended and laid the groundwork for dam decommissioning. The definite decommissioning plan was released by FERC in 2020 and in 2021 they approved Pacific Corps license to the states to transfer to the states of Oregon and California, as well as the Klamath River Renewing Corporation, which was an entity formed to take on ownership and liability through dam removal. Environmental analyses were performed in 2022, and later that year, FERC issued the license surrender order and 16 management plans, which are guiding post-dam operations today. Following funding obtained by the two states and Pacific Corps, where COPCO2 was decommissioned the following summer of 23, and drawdown for the remaining

We don't see the map up.

Why don't you continue, Ms. Anderson?

Why don't you just continue and I want to make sure that you're able to get your presentation in.

No, unfortunately. But why don't you continue, Ms. Anderson, and continue with the presentation, please.

There we go.

Thank you so much, Ms. Robinson. We're really grateful, Ms. Robinson, with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on that overview of the Klamath Dam removal. We're now going to hear about some tribal perspectives. We're going to first hear from Chairman James. Chairman James is with the Yurok tribe. Mr. Chair, I've said this to you privately, I'm going to say it to you publicly.

You have five minutes to give us perspective from on the ground.

Mr. Chair, it's an honor that you're here today. Thank you so much. We're going to open up for questions in just a few moments. Starting with the vice chair, we want to say thank you to Senator Cortese for also joining us here today. We're now going to turn it over to Chairman Attenberry from the Karuk tribe, who's going to be joining us virtually.

I want to do a quick mic check.

Yes, can you hear me?

You're coming in loud and clear. We'll turn it over to you, then we'll turn it over to Dr. Craig Tucker. Mr. Chair, it is an honor to have you with us today. Mr. Chair, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. How you can make his presentation. I appreciate you all. Mr. Chair, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for sticking to it and for never letting go of this. Really grateful to you. We're now going to introduce Dr. Craig Tucker. as the chair said, made it his life's work to see these dams come down. Mr. Tucker, from where you started to where we're at today, who would have thought? And incredible work, sir. We'll turn it over to you to be able to give some additional expertise, and we're going to turn it over to Mr. McManus to wrap up the panel on an overview of you for Sam and Dr Tucker Well thank you very much It an absolute honor and a pleasure to be here I been at it a long time and when my hair was thicker and darker I got to work

Doctor, we're going to come back to you in just a moment, and we'll open it up for questions. We're now going to turn it over to John McManus at the Golden State Salmon Association, who's going to give us an overview of the toughest challenges for salmon across the state. We've heard this significant milestone, not just for California, but for the nation. So McManus, if you want to talk about some of the challenges that we're seeing for salmon across the state. If you hit the little button right in front, there you go. You should be good to go.

I am not seeing them on the laptop here.

Give us a pause here for a second, 60 seconds, and we'll get it queued up. I think we're just getting them queued up. Here we go. We're close. And then what we'll do is if we have future,

Thank you so much. Please take it away.

I'm sorry, State Water Board. State Water Board. I cannot approve the final temperature management plan as currently written. I am objecting to the final temperature management plan as per the language in Water Rights Order 90-5, which is what you can't see there. That's law. That's law. This goes on and puts a finer point on what the State Water Board said to the Bureau But basically I think you all know that the Bureau decided to ignore it They basically said, we're not going to do anything different. And you brought this question up with the secretary. And our question in the salmon community is, why isn't the state enforcing the law? The state water board, I would think, would be in a position to bring a lawsuit. You may be aware there are some nonprofits that did bring a lawsuit, and we have not gotten relief is the word I'm looking for. So we're asking this committee, tell the state counterparts, your state counterparts, to enforce existing water law while we still can. We still have all of August ahead of us. and at a minimum get the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to at least document the destruction that's going to happen this fall. We did something similar back around 2014, 2015, I want to say, during that drought, and that documentation was done and it proved very useful. Many entities don't want to see the destruction documented, But in terms of holding people account going forward, it's going to be important. And I think that's all I've got. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chair. So first of all, I wanted to start with just a thank you to Dr. Tucker and the Karuk tribe, which has become basically an annual trip down the Klamath. And we were able to do that during the legislative break to go and see the progress that's being made around Iron Gate. And it really is incredible to see how quickly that landscape is recovering. I think my favorite part was seeing the beaver lodges, which, separate from the discussion about the salmon, starts to tell you more about how healthy the watershed is. And so I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to see that and to the chair as well. It really has been incredible. But you mentioned a couple of times sort of tangentially about seeing the first spring run come back. Can you talk a little bit about what the actual significance of that is? You mentioned broadly diversification, but specifically the spring run, why that is so encouraging.

I believe you mentioned that they have a different fat content also.

So I appreciate that. I do remember there was a hatchery that I think was a state-owned hatchery at one point that was by Iron Gate. And can you talk a little bit about that and how we might best be able to maximize efforts with it?

So I think there's things that we need to do to improve hatchery operations on the Klamath.

And then, Mr. McManus, you mentioned specifically Mill Creek, Deer Creek. What are the barriers that you have seen or that you think exist to a broader discussion about in-stream flows on salmon tributaries?

Great. And then my last question, and then I'll turn it over, is you mentioned that FERC has not issued the license yet on the feather. What is your understanding as the holdup, and how can the state help to move that forward?

And then final question, if I may, just for Chairman James. There's an entire chapter of the salmon strategy that's related to partnerships. and specifically building better relationships with tribal governments. You've obviously been in this for a long time. Where are there still gaps that we can help facilitate in some of those partnerships that might exist?

And it's part and parcel, the water and the fish and the culture. And do you want to just mention really fast the good work that you all are working on, making sure that indigenous water rights are recognized by agencies as well as it's working through the state legislature?

Anything to add, Mr. Tucker, really fast before I turn it over?

Thank you. Thank you so much, Assemblymember. Any additional questions? I have one question, and then any additional questions from the committee? On the biological opinion rollback or the rewrite, the BS, whatever you want to call it, of the Trump administration, if I could be so candid.

Mr. Chair? And if you want to call BS, you're more than welcome, Mr. Chair. I can call a number of things. There you go.

Yeah.

Craig? Well, I give the Yurok tribe a lot of credit. A big win in the Ninth Circuit a couple of weeks ago that really pushed back on the attempt of the federal administration to really rewrite the way the Endangered Species Act will apply to the Klamath Irrigation Project. And so we recently, the feds, convened a meeting just a couple of weeks ago to kick off once again rewriting the biological opinion that governs how the Klamath Irrigation Project operates. It's really important the state of California be there beside the tribes in that process. You've got regional staff in the room. They doing a great job but we certainly like to see deputy directors and attorneys from the governor office in that room as well because I think it going to be a pretty big fight over water on the Klamath in the next couple of years

but other committee members. I am Joanna Grable. I am the program manager within the marine region and my program focuses on management of invertebrate fisheries including the Dungeness crab fishery. So I am here today to provide an outlook for the upcoming commercial crab season. Since 2020 we've been managing the commercial Dungeness crab fishery under the risk assessment and mitigation program called RAMP The opening of the crab fishery as we know is dynamic and involves four facets that impact how and when the fishery will open These are whales domoic acid meat quality and fleet dynamics We've also referred to them as the four horsemen of the crab apocalypse. So today I'll be doing a quick overview of the horsemen and their impact on our upcoming season. So starting with whales, the migration that we saw this fall was pretty typical with animals arriving in the areas. As expected, our spring migration pattern was a little less predictable. Whale observations were patchy, and it was likely driven due to patchy prey distribution. Large groups of humpback whales were not seen until mid-April in our central management area. Oceanographic conditions were anomalous as well during the spring months, and coastal sea surface temperatures were among the warmest for that time of the year. Staff anticipate that whale migration patterns may be altered this upcoming season due to elevated coastal sea surface temperatures and reduced upwelling, which could alter prey distributions. The entanglement evaluation score under ramp for the commercial fishery is currently at 2.25. Historically, we have seen some entanglement cited during the fall months, so that score could change. And per our ramp regulations, if the score reaches 3, the fishery would automatically be delayed until January 1. So given the number of entanglements to date, historical migration patterns, and the uncertainty created by the oceanographic conditions, the department will likely take a conservative approach when opening the fishery this season. Management actions could include a season delay and or reductions in the amount of gear depending upon the level of entanglement risk. Moving on to domoic acid, this one's going to be a biggie this year. So staff are preparing for the potential impacts of a large domoic acid event given the prediction of a very strong El Nino this fall and into spring. Already this year, two humpback whale deaths in the Monterey Bay have been attributed to a domoic acid bloom that occurred earlier in the spring. If forecasts are correct, we could see something similar to what we saw back in the 2015 and 2016 season. During that time, we had extremely high levels of domoic acid that persisted for a long time. This caused the fishery to remain closed until late March in some areas and as late as mid to late May in others. This also resulted in a federal fishery disaster declaration. So staff are planning to begin our domoic acid testing a little bit earlier this year with the hopes of trying to get some early warning indication of where we think domoic acid is this year. Specifically, we want to see if levels are as high as what we saw in 2015 and 2016, which were upwards of 300 parts per million? 30 is the action level, so that was pretty drastic. Or are they more along the lines of what we've seen in recent years? So that will give us some indication of how long we think the fishery could potentially be delayed and what things may be looking at. And so with the passage of Senate Bill in October of 2021, we now have the ability to eviscerate crab. and evisceration is the process of removing the internal organs and it can allow for the safe consumption of crab when domoic acid levels in the meat excuse me in the viscera exceed the actionable levels but the meat is is still safe to consume This is the guts This is yeah the guts yep So and obviously the sale of whole live crab is preferable Evisceration could allow for some opportunities for the fishery to open and hopefully avoiding a prolonged delay. We're focusing on meat quality. So this is routine testing that's conducted in our northern fishing districts to determine if crab has sufficient meat volume and firmness before opening the fisheries. Last year, we were unable to do any of the testing in our northern areas because domoic acid was too high, and you have to clear domoic acid before you can do that testing. Given what we think we're facing with domoic acid, we don't really think that meat quality may be as important this year, but we will see. And then finally, our fleet dynamics, the last horseman. So our Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group will have their annual meeting towards the end of late September. And as part of that meeting, we will receive an update from our scientific advisors, and we'll discuss the outlook for the upcoming season. So we'll likely do something very similar to what we're doing here so that we are able to meet these horsemen head on. So in closing, we expect this to be another adventurous and somewhat unpredictable opening for the crab fishery. But thankfully, we do have some new tools in our toolbox, which we did not have back in the 15-16 season, which will allow us to meet these challenges head on. Meanwhile, we will work closely with the fleet to maximize our fishing opportunities while minimizing entanglement risk. Thank you.

Can you hear me? You're coming in. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Senator, members of the committee. Good afternoon. Sorry I can't be there in person. I do want to say I appreciate Joanna introducing you to the four horsemen. Those are things that we deal with every year, and our fleet adds the ultimate horsewoman, Mother Nature, to the equation there. When I talk to people about commercial fishing, and especially when they learn my son fishes full-time, I'm often asked, isn't that scary? Leaving port and heading into a vast wild ocean to do one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth, or staying home while someone you love does it is not something most people relate to. However, for me, it's just a part of life, And when I became executive director of PCFFA, the fishermen that I spoke for expanded from my family and home port of Half Moon Bay to the majority of California's commercial fishing fleet, including Dungeness crab fishermen responsible for more than 80 percent of crabs landed in California each year. And while they are a diverse group, none of them operates from a place of fear. They know that operating scared creates a whole new set of problems. Commercial fishermen instead focus on preparation. If they aren't on the water, they're working towards being successful when they are. They learn to trust their boats and equipment, their knowledge of the grounds, their instincts, their ability to adapt to whatever happens out there. Their lives depend on building this strong foundation before they ever cast off their lines. Unfortunately, the Dungeness crab fishery we operate under today has been built almost entirely on fear. Ten years ago, that perfect storm of warm water, persistent domoic acid, and the Department's lack of legal authority to stop thousands of traps from being deployed in the path of the spring whale migration led to an unprecedented spike in entanglements. That anomaly year, together with a newly identified endangered species listed Central American humpback population, unlocked new fears and opened the door to activist NGO litigation against the department and a resulting settlement that has fundamentally changed the fishery. We now know the spike in entanglement was a one-time event. Whale populations have increased significantly and interaction with fishing gear has decreased. But the damage has been done, and not just to the fleet, but to our communities and families, too. We only need to look to San Francisco to see what can happen when commercial fisheries struggle and everything built around them begins to fail. In our own homes, we experience the loss of local Dungeness crab on our holiday tables, and with it, generations of family tradition. These losses are fundamentally changing in California. The lawsuit forced CDFW to create RAMP, and that does provide the authority to prevent a repeat of 2016, even with the latest projected El Nino. And the preparation and knowledge gained over the last decade can now become the foundation for a better, more balanced approach. We have access to data and science that wasn't considered in the past to help us manage for actual co-occurrence risk rather than the fear of the unknown. We have the tools in the toolbox. During the recent federal take reduction team process for sablefish held this past April, we learned that the migratory season off the California coast is confirmed as April through November. And since RAMP was instituted in 2020, 95% of Dungeness crab has been harvested outside of that window between the months of December and March. We also know that not every whale interaction involves a Central American humpback whale or that it results in serious injury and mortality. NIMP's proposed reclassification of the California Dungeness crab fishery from Category 1 to Category 2 recognizes this lowered risk. But our current system does not quite yet do that. Just two weeks ago, NOAA announced a successful disentanglement, which was a great outcome. But under our current system, that surviving whale is still considered dead and endangered, and therefore scored against the California commercial fleet as one-third of our total annual score, which restricts our fishing. This is just one example of the impacts when operating under outdated fear-based assumptions rather than science. But the commercial fleet has not simply complained, and we're not here to just complain that regulations are unfair. We've done our part to find solutions. PCFFA is proud to be working with the department, the Dungeons Crab Task Force, TNC, and others. We've built the commercial fishermen's gear recovery network. We're working to expand vessel surveys coastwide. and we remain committed to making sure that the fleet's experience and knowledge is involved in all of the things that are coming towards our fisheries, some very exciting new science and technology to help fisheries managers better protect marine mammals while sustaining commercial fishing fleets and communities. So I thank you for this time, and I want to take a moment to thank Senator McGuire directly. Thank you so much for never giving in to fear and for your steady work on behalf of the commercial fishing fleet over these many years and for carrying SB 1393 this session as it moves forward important recommendations from the Dungeness Crab Task Force and protects the legislative foundation of this fishery There will always be those that want to keep us afraid, but it's time to trust the preparation of the last decade. It's time to stop managing this fishery from the fear created by one bad year and start managing it from everything that's been built since. The fleet, marine mammals, and our communities deserve nothing less. So I appreciate your time and thank you for having me virtually today.

I can't even turn on the microphone. You know. Okay, well, I'm going to read from this just to try to keep things straight and go quickly through this. and I want to kind of give you an overview of what has happened, you know, this year. Basically, we always think we have the season in control once we get going with this, and inevitably one of the horsemen fall off their saddle and, you know, things get all messed up, and that's exactly what happened this year. The market, although not included in the initial consideration, plays a very important role once the season date is set. From Gualala South, Zones 3 and 5 were clear to begin on January 5th. After price negotiations and a bunch of nonsense that went on with the fleet, we basically started, we had fair production, and the northern management area kind of held back, or they did have to hold back because there was some moly catsup issues and the quality was still at question at that point. Typically, the fleet usually knows where the majority of the crabs are going to be. So the assumption was there was a high volume of crabs in the northern management area, and many of the boats decided to wait and focus their efforts on the northern management area, as I said. Zone 1 opened around the Crescent City area, and the crabs either moved or weren't present in the volume that was expected. So not to say that they had a bad season, but just that there wasn't the anticipated level of the resource that they expected. The crazy thing was the same thing happened in Zone 2, which was the Eureka area, which was, again, an area expected of high volume, and there just wasn't the crab. So I'd like to kind of shift from there to data because for us as an industry, data drives our seasons, both for management and for business models that the fishermen need. My personal issue is with predictive and speculative models that impact our opportunities. For instance, co-occurrence, you know, the concept of vertical lines and whales in close proximity.

Thank you, Mr. Aug. I'm very grateful. And I've learned so much from you, Mr. Aug. And what I am always grateful, Dick, is that he comes, he's willing to participate. He has gone through the toughest times for the fleet. And I don't think any of us would have predicted what the fleet has seen over the last 10 years. And there's someone who is in the middle of it every time. And that's Dick Og. And I'm really grateful for you, sir, your leadership and getting us through some of the toughest times. We're now going to hear from Peyton Moore with the Nature Conservancy, who has just been a tremendous partner. as we move forward. And it's more, I think, the term unprecedented is used all the time, right? But the Nature Conservancy has been through some of the most unprecedented times when it comes to the fleet. What I appreciate about the Nature Conservancy is that you always have your view of wanting to be able to, and always putting the environment first, but also practical of what can we do to ensure long-term success for the fleet. And it has been an amazing partnership that the Conservancy has brought forward. I just want to say thank you. You have the floor. You have five minutes.

Thank you so much, Ms. Morris. Great to see you. I'm going to turn it over to the assembly member to see if there's any questions. If we could talk a little bit about demulg acid, I think, Scrabble, this has been 10 years ago. It was an emerging issue. Now it's something that we live with each and every year. I want to make sure that I'm hearing you right, and I know it's a bit of a crystal ball. We're going to hear more about this in our next panel as well on Super Al Nino. You know, there is really little way to avoid what we are most likely going to see in regards to these warm ocean temperatures. Right. I mean, that's the bottom line of this.

Yeah. And I do think that probably getting those quarterly crab meetings going again as we move into it. The more communication, I think, the better, right? And trying to work a unified front on this because I think it's the potential for challenge is real.

On presence of whales, the department with the assistance from the legislature and the governor purchased additional aircraft to be able to monitor for whales. But again, much cheaper way to do that now is also drones. Do you want to talk a little bit about that, what was just advanced as well by Ms. Moore, and talk about what you think are those emerging technologies that can avoid that entanglement as we move forward? Yeah, so the department does currently use aerial surveys that are conducted both by the department and then also in conjunction with Coast Guard and other federal agencies. So we do use that to help with the conducting our risk assessment mitigation program. In the space of entanglements and being able to identify entanglements, there's a lot of factors that we do need to have to help inform that. Specifically, you know, the gear that's on the animal, is it the same animal we've seen before? So I think when we start talking about technologies, I think there's a place for technologies in a couple different ways. to help inform when migration starts. Identifying individual animals in the case of an entanglement is sort of a different need, but I think that we are definitely willing and open to evaluate any technology that is available to help inform RAMP. Other states, can you just give us a glimpse of what other western states are doing in regards to monitoring? So the states of Oregon and Washington do not have RAMP-style programs. And I do know that the state of Oregon does conduct some surveys, but admittedly I don't have those details. So I'd be happy to provide those later if needed. I'd like to quickly go to Ms. Damrush on the upcoming season. Ms. Damrush, talk about where crappers are at throughout the north coast, central coast, feeling as we go into the season and challenges ahead. Please, Ms. Demarush.

100%, I know it's going to be a lot of collaboration as we move forward. Mr. Og, any follow-up on that?

100%. Yeah, and what Mr. Allgood said, I think that the critical nature of hitting the holidays, right? And Rob Ross is here who has been representing the fleet for decades and just grateful for his work as well. And talking about the importance of getting crab on the dinner table for the holidays, that's been of deep importance for the fleet, right? And that's where you make your money. Just be honest about it, right? and missing that entire season has been a real challenge for fishermen. It is, and, you know, it's really difficult for us to have crew on the boat waiting to be able to go, and we don't know if we can go, and we continue to have to wait and continue to have to wait. and the crew members and the captains are prepared to do whatever we're going to do, and we can't make a living. You know, it just doesn't work. It's, you know, there's, I really feel like we have ways to mitigate and work with this to be able to try and get product on the table with traditional equipment because, you know, if we look at the data, again, I have to say this over and over again, When the most gear is in the water we have the least known entanglements the least obvious you know the ones that you would expect that co to really cause a problem but it isn showing itself So are we able to operate efficiently with animals in the area I think we can. So. Thank you so much, Mr. Hogg. Ms. Grable, Ms. Domrush, Mr. Hogg, Ms. Moore, thank you very much for the work. Thank you for being here today and for this critical panel on the outlook for the 26-27. And Dr. Crab Season, we're really grateful for you. Thank you so much. Thank you. We're now going to be moving on to our fourth panel of the day, and that's talking about the Super El Nino. We've heard folks talk about the warm waters, the impact that it's going to have on crab season, but it's also going to have a great impact on marine mammals as well. And we're going to try to separate all of the hype to the fact in what we're going to see for California fisheries and coastal ecosystems. We're going to start with Dr. Julia Coates, if the good doctor can come forward from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Then we're going to hear from Dr. Anderson from Scripps in UC San Diego. She will be virtual. We're always grateful any time Dr. Anderson can join us. Then we're going to hear from Dr. Boehm from the Marine Mammal Center in the Bay Area. And he is going to have a very specific focus on mammals and the impact that we've seen. And I'm just going to be candid. Going into a season like what we are potentially going to see this year, it could be ugly. And he'll be able to give color to that. But first, let's start with Dr. Coates. Separating fact from fiction on the Super El Nino, the floor is yours. You have five minutes. Then we'll turn it over to Dr. Anderson and then to Dr. Bowen. We are a well-educated panel here. Let me tell you, my goodness. But, Doctor, it's wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for being here. The floor is yours on the Super El Nino.

Doctor, thank you so much. I appreciate that overview. Fascinating, by the way, and also scary, right, as we embark in this new era. We are grateful that Dr. Anderson is also with us. Dr. Anderson does so much work. She is the Director of Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing. Their system there at Scripps oversees the Cooperative Institute for Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Systems. We are so appreciative that she is here. She has five minutes, Dr. Anderson. Let's do a quick mic check, making sure that you're hearing us loud and clear.

Can you hear me? You are coming in loud and clear. The floor is yours.

So normally we're sort of lagging what happens at the equator. Here we're preceding it. The last time we saw that was the 2014 Pacific worm anomaly, I think really alluding to what Dr. Coates said, which is that this is somewhat similar to that scenario, and we need to be prepared for all the things that happened in that year, although we weren't able to really predict everything that happened then. Hindsight is 2020. We know that upwelling should be, quote unquote, suppressed. But if you just look at the vertical transport of water, which is this QT index, you can see that from 35 to, say, you know, 43 degrees latitude here in this upper left plot, it's been actually very intense. The red is telling you it's been anomalous for the last year, which really does mean there's a lot of upwelling. And if you want to think about how much nutrient is in that, how much nitrate, what the nutrient levels are, you can look at the bottom plot. And that's showing you that in that same latitudinal range, also very extreme. So we don't really know what this is going to mean, but it's sort of weakening in Southern California. And the multivariate indices are showing that it's still sort of neutral in Northern California, but trending high in Southern California. And we don't know what this will mean for animals. We know there will be winners. We know there will be losers. You've heard about a lot of this. So I'm kind of just going to flash forward here and just say, let's talk a little bit about the base of the food web, since that is my specialty. And I don't want you to read all of this, but I want to point out that when it comes to marine mammal and seabird impacts, there is a lot of uncertainty. It happens in years with El Ninos. It happens in years with La Nina. It happens in neutral years. And I think Dick really spoke to that. I think it is very uncertain. I cannot say, being a domoic acid expert, that we will have the same thing that we had in 2015. And in fact, we didn't know that was coming because we always associate the organism that causes this with cold water and cold upwelling, interestingly enough. But we look over the time series that we have of this toxin and nutrients, and there really is a lot of confusion in that. But if you start to think about just marine mammal and bird impacts, for instance, it can change the picture a little bit. And we've seen, like I said, ENSO neutral years, El Nino years. And then lately, the last five years in a row, it has been on top of a strong La Nina or cold upwelling event. And in fact, these are those those strandings that are aligned with our our C-HARM model. We see a lot of connection between how many animals strand and the toxins. And this is what we seeing right now for your region High potentially high production of cellular domic acid in the hot spots that were already mentioned So I just want to say that because we have state funding for these imaging flow cytobot robots that are telling us what the plankton are doing 24-7, we can see how these low frequency events propagate blooms up the coast, and we will have our eye on that 24-7 for you. My last slide is just to point out the food web matters. Fish is an indicator. I think that's brilliant. It's a great indicator for In mammals, it's a great indicator for how the toxin gets to those animals. We are seeing record anchovy recruitment year after year lately. If we still see that and we monitor anchovy, we may be able to predict a lot of downstream things, including domoic acid events, at least for mammals. Crabs are trickier. But I want to say we're monitoring it. We'll continue to put out our products, and I thank you for your time.

My gosh. Thank you for the introductory remarks. Thank you for the invitation and to the committee as well. And thank you, Senator, for your leadership. Thank you. Very, very much appreciated.

Imagine the cover slide is up there. There we go. Marine Memorial Center, as the Senator mentioned, has been in existence now for more than 50 years. We're authorized by NOAA Fischry to do our work along with hundreds of other organizations on every coastline in the U.S. We just happen to occupy a portion of the coastline, which is rather extensive, in Northern California and Central California, over 600 miles. And we operate in Hawaii, where we focus on the Hawaiian monk seal. Over those decades, we have seen more than 20,000 animals in our care. and the way we're looking at it now as we treat the animals, as we do the scientific research, and as we educate about what we find, we're on the front lines virtually. And as has been mentioned by colleagues on this panel and elsewhere, we're seeing a lot through the species that we all work with that are sometimes early indicators, early validators of things that we might have predicted. So let me take you to a quick tour. It's not exactly a prediction, but my best thinking, our best thinking on what we might be seeing. So here we go. General comment could be myriad, but I'll focus in these comments on nutritional stress, on risks associated with temporary range shifts as animals move from one area of water temperature to another. All of this against a backdrop of what we're seeing as novel emerging and reemerging diseases, diseases, just further stressing our system, and a couple of comments on humans at risk. My colleague to my left has already set the stage, as have others, around the fact that we can't predict from history, but boy, we sure learned a lot a decade ago. And as was elaborated on, this was an event of extraordinary proportions. and to put it in numeric context along Southern California seashore we were seeing some 3,000 juvenile California sea lions stranding. So it got the attention of people loud and clear. And as I say, there was much we learned from those events, which was, again, a confluence of ocean heat waves and an El Nino and other factors as well over multiple years. So getting right into it, malnutrition. I want to talk about sea lions here, and I also want to talk a bit about whales. If you are a California sea lion, you're more than likely going to be giving birth on the Channel Islands, which means you're kind of anchored because that pup of yours is going to be dependent for some nine months or so. So as a mom, you're moving to get food for yourself to keep your plane of nutrition high, but also to nurse your pup. And if water temperatures are moving your food source further and further away from those Channel Islands, you're expending more and more calories just in the getting of the food. And that's why we saw so many California Sanions stranding. We predict more of that kind of thing this next year. A footnote, though, on malnutrition, you may have heard that we're seeing more and more gray whales in San Francisco Bay over the last 5, 10 years. We're correlating that with shifting food sources up in the Arctic for that species where they're making these epic migrations to northern Mexico and back up. They're stopping off in San Francisco Bay for snacks now where they didn't used to need to do that. So all of these things are existing and are going to be exacerbated by an El Nino of significance. Rain shifts and risks. So if the water temperatures that you're evolved to forage in and that you occupy are shifting, you will be moving. And as was discussed in the last panel around the Dungeness crab fishery, this could be creating mashups of whales and fishing gear that exacerbate what is an ongoing problem that many, many people, many different stakeholders are bringing their best thinking to bear to solve. But that is going to be in our sights this next year. We've heard plenty about domoic acid impacts sea lions profoundly, causes seizures in an acute phase, chronic exposure causes actual deterioration of brain tissue, and it impacts humans as well. So a significant disease. What we're worried about is animals moving again into waters that they're typically not occupying, possibly encountering blooms that they wouldn't have otherwise. So it's, again, I'm using this term mashup, not terribly professional, but you get the point. A lot of different circumstances coming together. All of this is overlaying what we are seeing more and more as, back to this front lines analogy, we're seeing things emerge. We're seeing novel diseases. We saw highly pathogenic avian influenza this past year in elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Park. This rather grim image here on the left is that. We're seeing protozoal infections in sea otters at a clip and at a pace that we didn't use to, sarcosystis, toxoplasmosis, things like that. Again, all of this is to say that an El Nino on top of this is, again, just making our work more and more complicated. Humans at risk. This first image on the left may be familiar to my colleague here. that is right down there in La Jolla. If you have California sea lion pups that are coming ashore, orphaned malnourished we going to see more and more of an interface of wildlife and concentrations of human populations especially in Southern California This can cause at the very least physical risk from bites and injuries of that like, but also disease transmission as well. So there's a humans at risk consideration there. On the right, you're seeing some of our staff and volunteers. This is wearying work. This is hard work. This brings work that demands a lot of rigor, but also a lot of emotion. And we're watching our team and our team of teams up and down the coast and across the U.S. as we stand ready to do more and more of this intensive work. So the conclusion in that a significant El Nino will bring increased stress to marine mammals and other marine wildlife, obviously, and to the systems, the resources, and the people that respond to them. Happy to address any questions that you might have.

Yeah, and I know in the interest of time, I'll be a little bit brief. My question is really for Dr. Anderson, but all three of you, if you see an opportunity or see something we should know about. But Dr. Anderson, you mentioned that the Army Corps' investment in some of the – I think it was the buoy system that gives data had been decreased and that largely you were seeing funding being backfilled, if that's the way to put it, from parks. And I'm wondering, especially when you talk about the coastal data index, we've obviously seen this with NOAA and other places as well with tsunami buoys. Is there a particular area that we should be focused on where increased investment from the state could either help fill the gaps of what we're seeing at the federal disinvestment in California or an area that has historically been underfunded that could advance our understanding and preparation for significant events like the Super El Nino?

Doctor and doctor.

Okay. And then the last one, I think you touched on it very briefly, kind of collectively, but I'm also particularly interested in kelp populations and the restoration. Obviously, that's been a challenge in Northern California. Any predictions on what we should expect specifically there in the coming years? Happy to have Dr. Smith. Address that briefly.

So not good news. Gotcha. All right. Senator.

So in the glider time series, which is a 20-year time series, a lot like our shore station, it's reaching the max temperatures. I wouldn't say they've exceeded it yet, but we're at that point that we were with the 2015-16 Pacific Warm Anomaly where we were seeing the highest temperatures. So it's getting there. And we do expect this kind of change to happen gradually up the coast, as you know. Sometimes those teleconnections from the equator can be atmospheric. They can be via a Kelvin wave, and it can take time for all of that to manifest in northern California. What distinguishes an El Nino from a super El Nino?

I think we're reaching a two-degree Celsius threshold, which puts it in that super El Nino category like others. But in 2016, we saw that Godzilla El Nino and didn't necessarily have a hugely wet winter. You know, those predictions can fall apart, and we need to remember that, even though we need to be prepared. And I'll go to Dr. Coates in just one moment on this.

Right. So the baseline's shifting. This point has been made already eloquently that this marine heat wave slash El Nino is happening on top of an existing marine heat wave. That means that animals are already pushed to the extent of their ranges, perhaps, or their tolerances. And once they're at the edge of those tolerances, that's when we start to see some things spill over into the problematic areas. And I think that's what we have to have our eyes on, is that this is not the same El Nino it was in 1997, because the baseline temperatures are already different, and we're already having this kind of barrage of marine heat waves every one to three years.

living with now because we're not going to go back to the way it was correct well it does appear that since 2015 something has shifted in our kind of a pacific atmospheric oceanographic connectivity that has led to, like I said, a barrage of marine heatwaves that haven't gone away. I don't know anyone in this field who's ready to say that we'll never switch back, because if you look at decadal patterns, you do see a lot of oscillations, but it does seem as though we in a kind of we have crossed some sort of a tipping point in terms of warming in the Pacific and we are at a new baseline and so I going to just go out on a limb and say probably yes even though I like to do that I apologize I appreciate that Dr Anderson

Yeah, I concur with everything that Dr. Anderson said. The strength of the El Niño is tied to the size of that deviation from the average in that region of the equatorial Pacific. So a 2 degree C deviation would be a very strong. I'm not quite sure if there is a super definition. And then I guess to sum up your question, are we in a new normal?

So these marine heat waves, they are increasing in frequency and duration and spatial extent, as I said. Also, all of those things are going to impact the influence that they have on the ecosystem. Also, the depth of those marine heat waves, which are typically measured at the sea surface temperature, but how far down does that warm water extend? So all of these things make responses to marine heat waves highly variable because all of those different sort of parameters about the marine heat wave can be different from event to event. but we are seeing much more frequency and intensity of these events.

It is a very different game. It is a very different game.

the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, is the context within the higher frequency El Nino fluctuations occur within. And we're seeing a breakdown in those patterns from what they historically have been, where we're in this anomalously warm water since 2014, and yet we've had ups and downs of the Decadal Oscillation, where previously if we had had very warm water off of our coast, that would mean that we would be in a positive warm regime, the longer multidecadal regime. But that's not the case right now. We're actually in a negative decadal regime right now, and that's because the definition of those regimes is not an absolute temperature threshold like in El Nino. It's the differential across the Northeast Pacific. So we have warm water here. We have even warmer water in the Western Pacific. So it's just warm everywhere, and it's that difference between the two regions of the ocean basin that we have in the past used to measure those decadal regimes. But it's all changing now.

I'm not a kelp biologist. But I think just basic, though, it's just even with those cold upwellings, right, which they thrive on, it just becomes harder and harder for some type of longer-term recovery.

I would agree with that, and I would say the best we can do is minimize any other stressors on that kelp habitat and ecosystem that... that we can influence.

Purple urchins, yeah. That's always a... White abalone. That's right, yeah. That's some good times right there.

18 years now. Okay, so 18 years, volume when you first stepped foot almost two decades ago to where you're at now in regards to distressed animals. Yeah, if I could speak not to volume but to complexity, listening to these other answers about kind of trend lines and what we're seeing now versus in the past. Out the window is our ability to plan for a next calendar year. And it used to be a calendar that was fairly predictable based on puffing seasons, based on disease emergencies, and the rest. And we're seeing these overlays now of more potent and more prolonged situations with infectious diseases like leptospirosis, bacterial infection in sea lions, that now overlaying with sometimes bimodal seasons of domoic acid toxicosis. We're seeing more and more situations where just complicated and thriving economic uses of the ocean are finding themselves in the way of natural systems and species like whales. And so it's just, it wasn't simple 20 years ago, but it's certainly more complex now. And dynamic is the kind of euphemistic word that we're using. We're looking out on a very dynamic system.

Well, it's an interesting question, and it ties a little bit to some of the questions of yours and your colleagues around federal issues. The Channel Islands have been kind of a standard study site for decades, more than 50 years. There have been field campers out there every year looking at marine mammals, looking at pinnipets specifically, and getting their hands on them to do body measurements, weights, et cetera. I wouldn't say that there is a change in the body condition moving forward. There's a variability among individuals within those species that is high, and that depends on, you know, an orphan sea lion versus a very well-fed California sea lion down at Pier 39, right? There's a great, great disparity there. Again, rather than body condition, it's the diversity of the illnesses that we're seeing. We see cancer in California sea lions. That's extraordinary. So they're a really interesting group of animals to look at for a window into the health of the oceans.

came down to us for kind of fattening up, and boy, did he, and lived with his. He was a building.

He was, but he's a different species than the California sea lions, right? So he's a large animal. but he was with these guys that just made him look more exaggeratedly large. I don't have a current update on his bearings and his location, but it really went well. There we go. I love it. Chonkers. Chonkers.

To this incredible panel, I just want to say thank you so much. Dr. Coates, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Bohm, we are grateful for you. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here. Fascinating. I will say depressing. and your work is more critical than ever. And so appreciate each and every one of you and know how busy you are and for you to spend this much time with us. We are forever grateful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Very grateful. We're now going to be moving on to our final panel of the day and then we're going to be opening up public comments. This is our Fishery Committee and Aquaculture Program reports. We're going to welcome Dr. Whiteman. Dr. Whiteman is one of our best that we have in the state. Thank you so much. Executive Director of the California Ocean Trust, Ocean Science Trust, excuse me.

We're very grateful. Katie, it's wonderful to see you. We are going to open it up to you for five minutes. Then we're going to turn it over to Dr. Whiteman, And we so appreciate you every year being here at the annual forum. Katie, the floor is yours.

I appreciate your work. Thank you so much. Yeah, special thanks to Ms. Winger as well. Thank you. Very, very grateful. Let's go to Dr. Whiteman, Executive Director of California Ocean Science Trust. Doctor, thank you for your incredible work. The floor is yours. You have five

I was reviewing my talking points actually from October last year in this forum where I launched by saying that I was glad every day to wake up and be in California. As surreal and as farcical as it seems, the continuing impacts to the science community from the federal administration continue and amplify with obviously consequent effects on our coasts and oceans. So I express the same sentiment here today. It's good to be in California. It's also, I think with that comes a responsibility, particularly in light of that mandate and mission that we have to step up in support of the science community. So this gives me the opportunity to extend appreciation to the legislature for your investment in the Ocean Science Trust in 2022. And what I'd like to do is to share a couple of updates that were made possible with that support. So we've been able to actually leverage over $600,000 in external funding to be able to deliver science advice and insights on things like coastal flooding risks, fisheries insurance, biodiversity and the possibility of insurance, serving in a science advisory capacity to the California Department of Insurance. We've been able to leverage over half a million in external funding to establish a working relationship with the Air Resources Board as they begin to explore the potential and associated risks of tapping into the ocean's capacity to store and sequester carbon and explore things like marine carbon dioxide removal technologies. We've been able to work collaboratively with the Ocean Protection Council. we've strengthened the role of OPC Science Advisor and OPC's partnership with California's public and private universities and science institutions. As a testament to that, earlier this year we collectively released the 2026 Coast and Ocean Assessment, the first comprehensive statewide science-based assessment of coastal and ocean health in California's history. This assessment brought together over 120 scientists from academic, government, tribal, and non-profit organizations to evaluate the status of California's coast and ocean through 14 key indicators. It's unsurprisingly a mixed story of pressure and progress, and particularly the 2014-15 marine heatwave that you heard about in the previous panel showed up as a background disruption to pretty much all of the indicators that we tracked. This means that we can use this as a baseline and as against which we can track and measure the impacts of the current marine heat wave and possible El Nino and use it to be strategic about where we take action. One of the other things we can use it for is to illuminate where investment in observations are needed and I concur with my colleague Dr. Anderson about it illuminated gaps along the north coast in our ability to track and measure what's happening there. Changing tack, we've focused in the past and particularly in venues like on our role as science advisors. But we were created as an independent financial trust. Think of us like California's Community Foundation for Ocean Science, blending private and public capital to bring support to California's science community. So this year, I'm so thrilled to be able to report that we've responded to the science funding crisis to live up to that vision and have established a new fund that we've called the Sea Change Scholars Fund. In partnership with CSU Coast, we've provided inaugural funding awards to students conducting research on the impacts of offshore wind. This directly meets the needs of state agencies and gives those students an opportunity to participate in research with real-world impact. And it defrays their student costs of living so that they might actually envision a future in this science policy career pathway. The public investment has supported building the infrastructure to maintain the fund and creating a unique vehicle for both public and private contributions that can directly go to student success. Last but not least, sharing the update that together with partners, including the Oregon Ocean Science Trust, the only other science trust in the nation, and the Washington Department of Ecology, we're developing a West Coast Ocean Science Action Agenda. As this forum has shown over the years, our challenge is not identifying ocean problems. The challenge is identifying the science needs we share and bringing them together so that we can speak with a unified voice on what the West Coast needs most. We're planning to bring the first outcomes of this work to federal and congressional audiences at the beginning of next year to mobilize investments on the West Coast, which actually have trailed behind many of the other U.S. regions for well over a couple of decades. So strategic use of your investment in the Ocean Science Trust means that we can point to these four plus years of impact while the original principle you invested remains intact. This approach is proven as a mechanism to whether budget fluctuations while we can maintain support for science and the science community and make sure we're bringing and are here to bring the best science advice to you. So I'll also say thank you to the members and staff across so many committees and offices for your collaboration and partnership as to engage with us, seek scientific input, and understand that the ocean is not a niche issue. it's central to our climate, economy, culture, and so much more. So I'll close in just saying thank you again to this committee and also particularly to Assemblymember Rogers and Senator Laird for your continuing support.

Doctor, talk a little bit about the work with Washington and Oregon. And what is in my head is something very similar to what we did with vaccinations, for example, right, when Trump administration decided to go knucklehead. And it seems like this is the same approach you're going to take. And similarities versus differences between the three states. And then how do you come to consensus on what is going to be focused on?

No, that's fantastic. That's great. I love that. And please, on the issue of kelp.

Yeah, this is interesting. We can get into it again, but down the road. I am curious, as somebody reading books to my toddler where there's too many mice, you bring the cats, there's too many cats, right? Is there any associated problem with too much kelp if you go that route where you have genetically altered or manufactured kelp of some sort?

Interesting. And are they putting more resources in? And then my other question is, how much is it coral, how much is it kelp? It seems like there's been a lot more focus on coral, right, than there has been on kelp.

Interesting. I'm just going to do that as a follow-up as well. I appreciate it.

Just to share, we did a select committee on climate innovation hearing last year where we actually heard from some individuals from Australia who were working on kelp farming. One of the things that we did here is that there was like 15 different agencies that they'd have to jump through hoops with in California alone to be able to pick up what they did in other countries and bring it here. So just something to put a pin in.

I might also just add from the Ocean Protection Council side, I'm certainly also not an expert in kelp, but obviously we are continuing to work with the Department of Fish and Wildlife on the kelp restoration and management plan. And in OPC's strategic plan, we do have very ambitious targets for kelp restoration in California that are supported by a large amount of Proposition 4 funding. So we definitely are taking those active steps towards in-water restoration.

Absolutely, happy to.

My name is David Goldenberg. I am the manager of the California Salmon Council and the California Sea Urchin Commission. I hope you allow me just a little bit more time than the two minutes if I run over. You mentioned in the very beginning, Senator, that this is the 51st Zeke Raider meeting at the Fisheries Forum. I knew Zeke Raider. I've been working for the Salmon Council for 32 years. I owe my job to Zeke Raider when he formed the Salmon Council in 1989. Our effort, it goes towards marketing of our California king salmon. In 2023 through 2025, as you know, we had no salmon season, no assessments coming in to help our marketing effort. In 2025, excuse me, 2026, we now have a salmon season, so we welcome that opportunity, but we have really very few funds to help market the salmon because we've had no season for the past three years. So most of our effort is really towards social media. We promote the sustainability. We promote the taste and the nutrition of our king salmon. We are working also on the salmon disasters for 2023 through 2025 And as Dr. Schumann mentioned, we just got funding for an allocation for 2024. We're working as the interface between the department and the industry to help move that forward and keep moving until the disaster funds hit the intended target. We also represent on our salmon council the handlers as well. And also in regard to the fishery disasters, we work with the handlers, the salmon buyers, the recreational charter boats, and the in-river guides. So we are a good interface with those organizations and those industries. On the next one, the other organization I manage is the California Sea Urchin Commission. And so we are working on the kelp recovery. We were working cooperatively with the Nature Conservancy and taking federal funds to pay divers to go and remove the purple urchins from Mendocino County and Big River and also in Noyo Harbor. I was able to get it all accomplished.

My name is Ben Grundy. I'm an oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. As we've heard here today countless times, our oceans are changing. marine heat waves, habitat compression, domoic acid, and it's important that we continue to adapt how we're managing our fisheries and how people participate in those fisheries to protect whales and other marine animals. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, the science is telling us that removing vertical lines from the water and strategically restricting fishing effort during times and in areas when there's high concentrations are some of the best ways to prevent entanglements. Since 2015, there's been 369 whales that have been confirmed entangled on the U.S. West Coast. At least 10% of those entanglements have been directly linked to the California commercial Dutchness crab fishery, as well as additional entanglements linked to other state fisheries. Yet we know that these are only the confirmed and documented entanglements. The latest preliminary data from NIMS and Dr. Jeff Moore is that it could be at least five times higher than what's actually being observed and reported. So it's really important that we're doing all that we can to try and keep risk down. As we know, California's authorization of fisheries that take protected whales and sea turtles without valid take authorization from the federal government violates the ESA and Marine Mammal Protection Act, and I support and encourage the state's continued effort to bring its fisheries into compliance. I'm also appreciative of the efforts and resources that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Ocean Protection Council, and California Fish and Game Commission have put in and dedicated to addressing this issue and this problem, and I'm thankful to the California fishers who've embraced and led efforts to adopt new techniques, new technologies as a way to protect their fishery and prevent Entanglements, protecting our ocean and protecting whales is a multi stakeholder and the progress that's made is something that should be celebrated. Pop-up fishing gear is a tool with over 98% reliability rate that can significantly reduce entanglement risk while also preserving and establishing new fishing opportunities. And I'm proud that California has authorized it in several of its trap pot fisheries. Managing and operating well-safe fisheries requires the tools, policies, and staff needed to respond proactively and reactively. And I ask that the legislature continues to support the state agencies that are tasked with protecting our oceans and its resources so that staff capacity and financial resources aren't barriers to having a healthy ocean. And I also ask that our agencies continue to uphold their constitutional and administrative responsibilities to protect our ocean wildlife through science-based policies. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Yeah, thank you very much. Chair McGuire, members of the committee, thank you for an opportunity to speak. My name is Larry Phillips, and I serve as a Pacific Fisheries Policy Director for the American Sport Fishing Association. I cover fisheries policy issues throughout the West Coast, and ASA represents the recreational fishing industry, including more than 80 businesses and organizations in California. By way of background, I handed you a one-pager and just some facts about California. California's nearly 1.7 million recreational anglers generate about $7.9 billion in economic output, support more than 43,000 jobs, contribute about $670 million in local and state taxes annually. Anglers and our industry also directly fund conservation. In addition to fishing license revenue, California will receive approximately $20 million this year through federal excise tax paid by fishing equipment manufacturers and importers. These funds support fisheries science, habitat conservation, restoration, boating access, and recreational fishing opportunities. California fisheries face their share of challenges for sure, but I also want to share some positive news. California salmon fisheries are happening for the first time in three years. There are currently no West Coast ground fish stocks that are classified as overfished by NOAA Fisheries or the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. And in addition, the most recent stock assessment estimates Pacific bluefin tuna spawning stock biomass at more than 20% of unfished levels. It was just 2% in 2012. These successes demonstrate why sustainable investments in fisheries science, management, and conservation matter. Healthy fisheries provide opportunities for anglers while supporting charter operators, marinas, tackle shops, hotels, restaurants, and coastal communities. As others have mentioned, we deeply appreciate your, Senator, your long history of advocacy for California's fisheries. These will certainly be big shoes to fill, but we look forward to working with the next generation, next group of fisheries champions in the California legislature. We recognize this is a difficult job the state, tribal, and fisheries managers face in balancing conservation. fishing opportunities and competing demands, but the recreational fishing community remains committed to being a constructive partner with these managers and the legislature to ensure California's fisheries remain healthy and accessible for the future. Thank you.

Yes thank you so much Chair and Vice Chair My name is Tony Bangos I here representing Coastal Conservation Association of California CCACAL This is my first time giving public testimony at this committee meeting so thank you for allowing me the microphone I think I'm the last one here, but thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the recreational saltwater community. CCACAL, we're a grassroots organization of anglers, volunteers, conservationists, local chapters, fishing businesses, community partners, all committed to protecting healthy, vibrant, robust fisheries while preserving meaningful access to California's coastal and inland waters. Our anglers and anglers across the coast, they do more than just fish. They volunteer. They participate in fisheries research. They educate anglers on invasive marine algae. They raise funds for conservation, encourage new anglers to join into this space, And they also provide valuable insights to scientists and to resource managers. I want to shed some light on the Ocean Resources Enhancement in Hatchery Program, or OREP, as an example of this angler-driven conservation in action, and one of the only marine hatcheries truly of its kind. For decades, the SoCal Anglers have helped fund this OREP program through the Ocean Enhancement Validation Stamp that is offered on annual licenses in this state. These are angler-generated dollars that support marine fisheries research, hatchery operations, the grow-out facilities, tagging, monitoring, and the release of our three-millionth white sea bass was released just a couple months ago. Not to brag, but I was the person who got to do it, so that was very exciting. But the history of white sea bass off of our coast, You know, this is one of those species that is full of history. It's full of economic value in both commercial and recreational sectors and also holds a lot of intrinsic value to our anglers and to the state as well. It tastes good, too. Oh, they're delicious. They are delicious, but there's a reason why they're called the ghosts. They're very difficult to catch, and that's part of the allure of that species. But we are in the process of stabilizing this program and for it to allow anglers that have built on decades of this innovative fisheries management to help contribute back to the resource. But also it's something palpable. It's something that anglers have a physical hand in getting to say that they helped with. There are nine grout facilities along the coast, and this process and this hatchery, it cannot be done without those volunteers that have donated so much of their time to that facility. We have 20 seconds. Thank you. There's many opportunities to work on the ground with agency and department staff, but I just want to thank you and the many committees for your ongoing leadership and your continued commitment to California's environment, recreational fishing economy and our outdoor heritage. So thank you. Really appreciate it.

Mr. Chairman and members, we work with a lot of the groups that you've heard from today and certainly the ones in industry. The last lady who spoke in the ORHAB program, we've been involved in that from the beginning, trying to enhance the ocean and utilize the resources that belong to all the people in the state of California. But I want to thank you on behalf of everybody I know here and you know who I know here that the tremendous work that you've done over the years for the industry, I think over 30 individual pieces of legislation dozens of side conversations with your colleagues on behalf of the industry and maybe hundreds of actions that you done for the industry and the seafood consumers of California. So we appreciate you. We're going to miss you here. We'll see you over there.

Good. I can wrap us up, and I'll try and be quick. So Alex Loomer, actually, I don't have a client here today. I want to just give a couple comments on my own behalf. I want to join in the chorus of folks thanking you, Senator. Really, I mean, you've done so much over the course of your career to represent the North Coast, to represent the industries, but also to represent the tribes. And having them highlighted here on a panel talking about the successes with Klamath Dam removal, but also what's next and how much more we could be doing to support tribes and their leadership on protecting salmon and really how they manage holistically, like looking at both fuels and flows and how it all comes together and centers around the cultural importance of salmon. I really appreciate your leadership in that. Nicole, I want to thank you for all your work putting this together. You've done a great job. This is such a great set of panels. And then, Senator Rogers, I really am excited to see you take off. It's your second year. The very first bill you introduced was about salmon, and it was about tribes, and seeing AB 263 highlighted today, and how important it was to be protecting flows on the Scott and Shasta rivers, and what that's doing even this year to protect the salmon downstream in the Klamath is huge. I think one thing I'll leave you with is looking towards next year, and I hope folks watching the recording on the committee will think about this. You know, we won't have Governor Newsom here. He had great leadership around the salmon strategy. I want to think about what's next there. We need to be sure that we're continuing to think about, like, how we're going to protect salmon going forward. And if we look to that strategy in the next administration, great. If we need to come up with a new one, I think that's another opportunity. But we need to make sure that that strategy lives beyond Newsom's tenure and that, you know, the next governor and the ongoing members, you know, this legislature are thinking about that and making sure that we're prioritizing salmon going forward. And I loved that we really focused on the importance of partnerships. Like, that was such a big piece of the salmon strategy. It was, like, how are we partnering with tribes? What more can we do? And I think that's an area we can really continue to explore. So thank you again. We're really excited that this is your, you know, that you're going on to bigger and better things. And we know that you're going to be carrying on this legacy of, you know, really representing the North Coast so well.

No, thank you so much. And I think I learned my lesson the last time you were in a committee with me not to make too many crap puns at you. That is right. Dear Lord Rogers. So I will refrain from that. Yes, thank you. Oh, crap. I did just want to say thank you so much to Nicole, to everybody for putting together such an incredible agenda. it isn easy to get everybody here to discuss such an important topic and just a powerhouse of the who who of the folks who have been doing it for decades who have seen the impact who are concerned about the future of the industry who see all of the touch points and the way that was described of it all coming together and supporting one another. And it really is just one panel after another panel of incredible information for us, a lot for us to noodle on, especially heading into the next legislative session. A lot of work is still to be done, a lot of work that's being done. And it leaves me hopeful that we're moving in the right direction on a lot of these things, that the strategies are in place. We just need a whole lot more of it. And I want to thank you for everything that you've done in our region. Obviously, the North Coast is home. And I'll let you wrap it up.