The Marine Life Management Act, which became law on January 1, 1999, instructs CDFW to regularly prepare reports on the status of California's fisheries and the effectiveness of management programs. The reports below have been prepared in response to this call for periodic review. Prior to 2012, these reports were prepared for all species, or subsets of species, managed by CDFW.
Beginning in 2020, CDFW prepared enhanced status reports for state-managed species. These reports are living documents stored in the Marine Species Portal that are updated as needed, and will be tied to online resources for more information.