Management Overview
The Califorina Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is committed to partnering with the stakeholder community to make informed decisions about the management of the California halibut fishery to support a healthy species, ecosystem, and fishing community.
In 2019, CDFW released an updated roadmap for the continued implementation of the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) 2018 Master Plan. As part of the update, many of the state’s fisheries were evaluated and prioritized for management actions to comply with the sustainable use objectives of the MLMA. The prioritization process ranked California halibut (Paralichthys californicus) as a high priority due to potential risks to bycatch species (including sub legal-sized California halibut) and from a changing climate. In 2020,CDFW began the initial stages of considering the best scale of management for the halibut fishery and partnered with stakeholders to identify areas of concerns. In late summer, 2021, CDFW invited stakeholders of the California halibut fishery to a two-part webinar series to learn about and discuss California halibut. Learning from the knowledge gained in the stakeholder process, CDFW is currently working on implementing a California halibut management strategy which includes all fishery sectors statewide: recreational, commercial hook-and-line, trawl, and gill net.
Since 2022, CDFW has been focused on six management priorities for the California halibut fishery include:
- refining the 2020 stock assessment (completed for the southern stock, ongoing for the northern stock);
- writing the Enhanced Status Report (completed);
- carrying out an ecosystem evaluation (completed);
- conducting the California Halibut Southern Trawl Ground assessment (PDF) (completed);
- developing the halibut bag limit MSE tool (ongoing); and
- performing a bycatch evaluation for the gill net fishery (PDF) (completed) and trawl fishery (in process).
These six management priorities are in different stages of completion and continue to be a high priority for CDFW.
Bycatch Evaluation Process
Under the direction of the Marine Life Management Act Master Plan for Fisheries (Master Plan), CDFW is tasked with assessing bycatch in California fisheries, including for California halibut set gill net and trawl fisheries.
Using the best available datasets and the framework established within the Master Plan, CDFW completed a bycatch evaluation for the gillnet fishery (PDF)(opens in new tab) in Fall of 2023.
CDFW is continuing this effort to evaluate bycatch acceptability within the statewide halibut trawl fishery occurring in federal waters.
The California halibut management process includes ongoing outreach with stakeholders to provide information regarding the data that will be used for the bycatch evaluation process and for participants to provide input and feedback.
California Halibut Stock Assessment
The goal of fishery management under the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) is to ensure that fishing levels are sustainable and do not result in an overfished stock. To aid in this goal, managers develop stock assessments that establish the current and historical status of the fishery resource. Stock assessments utilize all available data, which most commonly includes catch, abundance indices, and biological data specific to the species. Stock assessments are highly informative management tools used to assess the abundance of fish populations, determine the level at which a resource may be sustainably exploited, and sometimes to predict the potential consequences of policy decisions.
In 2011, the first statewide stock assessment of California halibut was completed. Performed by an external expert, with funding from CDFW, the results were independently peer reviewed prior to release. The assessment examined two stocks of California halibut, with the boundary between northern and southern stocks at Point Conception.
In 2020, CDFW completed an update to the 2011 stock assessment, drawing on the prior modelling approach and considering recent data as well as recommendations from the prior review process.
Facilitated by California Ocean Science Trust (OST), an independent scientific peer review of the updated 2020 California halibut stock assessment was completed by a panel of experts. The review focused on whether the technical components, models, and analysis that underpin the stock assessment were applied in a manner that is scientifically sound, reasonable, and appropriate.
The review identified that while the southern model results are more stable, both the southern and northern models required improvement prior to informing management. CDFW has worked to incorporate the technical improvements suggested by the 2020 peer review panel for the southern stock and in December 2024, undertook a second external, independent peer review of a new assessment of the stock.
Reviewers included:
- Chantel Wetzel, Mathematical Statistician, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center
- Kiva Oken, Stock Assessment Scientist, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center
- David Sampson, Emeritus Professor, Oregon State University
- Cheryl Barnes, Assistant Professor, Oregon State University
CDFW invited interested members of the public, Tribes and Tribal communities, and stakeholders to a series of review panel meeting presentations regarding the California halibut stock assessment for the southern California region (south of Point Arguello). During these meetings, stock assessment reviewers and CDFW staff conducted a technical review of the completed California halibut stock assessment for the southern California region.
CDFW hosted a public webinar in April 2025 and presented the final results of the southern stock assessment including sharing the reslults of the peer review.
Please email mlmafisheriesmgmt@wildlife.ca.gov to request 2011 stock assessment documents