Adapting the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment products to respond to rapidly evolving environmental conditions: a stress test for Ecosystem Based Fishery Management.

The 2013-2015 Marine Heat Wave (MHW), known as “the blob,” and the 2019 developing NE Pacific MHW, provide an excellent case study for examining the ability of fisheries management to respond to large-scale ecosystem events within the Ecosystem-based management (EBM) paradigm. NOAA-fisheries rely heavily on its already extant California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (CCIEA) efforts to convey information on the environmental variability. This CCIEA effort originated in 2010, with the goal of applying the NOAA IEA framework to support management and conservation of marine resources and ecosystem services in the California Current ecosystem. The blob evolution revealed that the practice of an annual CCIEA summary to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) was not sufficient to inform fishers or management of the rapidly changing environment. This talk will review how using what was learned in monitoring the blob is being applied to inform the products and practices in response to 2019 MHW, and how the CCIEA is advancing early and purposeful engagement with management partners and stakeholders. As part of this evolving process, we highlight the need for more timely communications between the CCIEA team and the PFMC staff and members. This includes building and leveraging research collaborations across multiple disciplines, promoting timely delivery of products and adapting the IEA framework to spatial and temporal scales that are consistent with specific management needs.