Purpose and Overview
One of the four core policies in achieving the goals of the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) is
the principle of basing decisions on sound science and other useful information such as biology of
fish, population status and trends, fishing effort, catch levels, and impacts of fishing (known as
essential fisheries information or EFI). This database was created to facilitate the easy access to
life history information for nearshore fishes of California as part of an ongoing effort to gather EFI
in order to enhance management techniques and improve management decisions. This database
contains the life history information compiled in the report, "Biological Characteristics of
Nearshore Fishes of California: A Review of Existing Knowledge and Proposed Additional Studies"
(Cailliet et al. 2000).
The original report was designed "to be a major step toward characterizing the fish assemblages
in California's nearshore ocean waters and providing essential information for measuring the
impacts of human activities, measuring economic costs and benefits to the state from commercial
and recreational fishing, and evaluation alternative management strategies for marine fisheries
through the FMP (fisheries management plan) process." The reorganization of this data into an
easily query-able form, adds to the ability of managers and researchers to utilize this information
and, thus, to improve management of the nearshore fishery. Also by gathering available data on
130 different nearshore species in one place, this database offers researchers and managers an
understanding of which subjects and species are well studied and which areas have a paucity of
knowledge and require more research effort.
Obtain the Biological Characteristics of Nearshore Fishes of California in a Microsoft Access database format (ZIP)
ZIP File, File Size 2.5 MB
Life History Database Brochure (PDF)