California Current Joint Venture: A Partnership for the California Current Ecosystem
PRBO is currently working to establish the California Current Joint Venture – an initiative designed to build partnerships and facilitate collaboration among entities who share an interest in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem.
Building Collaboration at the Regional Scale
The California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), stretching from British Columbia to Baja California, is a globally significant natural resource that hosts abundant and diverse marine life. The CCLME is home to fishery and tourism industries essential to the coastal economies of North America.
There is significant agreement that our current governance and communication structures are inadequate to support the most effective management of the CCLME. Cooperation across political boundaries and diverse cultures needs to increase, and we need to examine and respond to problems in an ecosystem context and at the ecosystem scale.
Recognizing these issues and others, both the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission have recommended the United States improve collaboration and cooperation at the regional scale. These reports acknowledge the critical need for public participation and transparency of information to ensure lasting, comprehensive results.
PRBO has seen through our work with terrestrial Habitat Joint Ventures and others, that partnerships often improve the results of conservation and management efforts. Through partnerships, we can build trust, common language, and a shared understanding of circumstances and issues – all of which improves our ability to manage and protect natural resources.
The California Current Joint Venture (Joint Venture) is a partnership among stakeholders in pursuit of common goals. The coalition will include stakeholders from across the region and address issues at the ecosystem scale. The Joint Venture targets its efforts on improving our understanding, use, and enjoyment of the natural resources of the CCLME so that they will be readily available to future generations.
Satellite image of the central portion of the CCS (central California), which shows areas of strong coastal upwelling, indicated by the blue (low sea-surface temperatures).
Facilitating Ecosystem-based Management
There’s a lot of interest in and support for pursuing marine ecosystem-based management – an approach for managing our activities in a way that considers the relationships among all ecosystem components, including humans, when choosing a course of action.
· One of the five goals identified in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Strategic Plan is to, “Protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management.”
· The Pacific Fishery Management Council is preparing an Ecosystem-based Fishery Management Plan.
· Ecosystem-based management is compatible with the ocean resource management goals of Washington, Oregon, and California state governments, and a priority area in the West Coast Governors' Agreement.
· There’s a lot of interest in and support for pursuing ecosystem-based management within many interest groups.
As ocean managers pursue ecosystem-based management, it’s important for stakeholders to understand what it means, and to participate in expanding our knowledge base and the development and implementation of new policies. Through participation by stakeholders and transparency of information, we can help ensure successful implementation of the concept on a large scale.
Developing and Applying Food-web Science
Implementing ecosystem-based management in the marine environment requires that we better understand the trophic relationships within the food web. The interactions among species – such as competition and predation – directly influence ocean productivity. We can make better management choices when we consider these relationships, as well as the physical environment in which they take place, particularly in the face of global climate change.
To launch the Joint Venture, we are developing an initial project focused on expanding the application of food-web science in ecosystem-based management and conservation activities.
Our overall goals are to:
1. Build a common understanding among stakeholders of what marine ecosystem-based management means and how it can be applied in the CCLME.
2. Promote implementation of ecosystem-based management by developing tools and information through cooperative efforts.
3. Improve our ability to forecast and prepare for changes in food webs that impact our economy and way of life, including those caused by climate change.
At first, the Joint Venture will focus effort on key prey species that support the CCLME food web (or webs). Working with PRBO’s Marine Ecology Division, we will expand our knowledge of food-web linkages (especially predator-prey interactions). The Joint Venture will work to apply that information to forage species management and conservation.
We are still in the early stages of forming the California Current Joint Venture and outlining an initial project. If you would like more information, please contact Jennifer Martin at 707-781-2555 x 351.
Male Steller’s Sea Lion on the Farallon Islands.
