CDFW Develops Adaptive Chronic Wasting Disease Management
Fish and Game Commission meeting highlights:
- Population estimates allow for northern pintail bag limit increase but also prompt barred sand bass bag limit reduction.
- Youth Hunt Days will be swapped with Veterans and Active Military Personnel Waterfowl Hunting Days to improve the hunt experience for young hunters.
- Chronic wasting disease testing to continue.
Last week, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) increased the northern pintail bag limit to three for the first time in almost 30 years. While population estimates are sufficient to support more pintail hunting opportunities, depleted population estimates for the recreational barred sand bass fishery called for the Commission to reduce a five-fish bag limit to four. The Commission took these and other actions affecting California’s natural resources at its April 16-17 meeting in Sacramento.
Estimates indicate more than 1.2 million pintail are migrating through the Pacific Flyway, which U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials say are enough birds to sustain a bag limit increase for the 2025-26 waterfowl hunting season. The recommendation from USFWS set the course for the Commission to adopt regulation amendments to increase the daily pintail bag limit, a bag limit that has been held to one to two birds since 1998.
“The Commission has multiple responsibilities, including conserving our fish and wildlife while also providing hunting and fishing opportunities. Waterfowl hunters have waited for this moment for a long time,” said Commission President Erika Zavaleta. “It’s nice to see that it is finally possible.”
Youth Hunt Days were swapped with Veterans and Active Military Personnel Waterfowl Hunting Days. This change comes as members of the hunting community have expressed concern that when the waterfowl season closes within a few days of Youth Hunt Days the young hunters don’t have as successful of a hunt. Swapping the timing may allow extra hunting days for the general public while minimizing disturbance to the Youth Hunting Day experience.
Other adopted waterfowl regulation amendments include an increase of the length of the duck and goose season in most hunting zones from 98 to 103 days. In other changes for most zones, there will be no falconry-only hunts and the length of the brant season will be decreased from 27 to 16 days.
The Commission adopted changes to recreational fishing regulations for barred sand bass, a Southern California fishery managed collectively with kelp bass and spotted sand bass. A year-round sub-bag limit of four fish was set with a sunset date of June 1, 2028. The recreational fishery previously saw limits to address population concerns with kelp bass and barred sand bass in 2013, when the bag limit was reduced from a 10-fish bag limit to a five-fish bag limit, and the size limit increased from 12 to 14 inches. CDFW concerns with the lack of recovery in the barred sand bass population prompted the request for the Commission to take action and a commitment to work collaboratively to fill data gaps and bring annual updates to the Commission.
The Commission amended regulations regarding chronic wasting disease testing and big game hunting. Among those actions, a late season buck hunt was added for a portion of Madera County within Zone D7. This late season hunt aims to give hunters an additional harvest opportunity while also potentially identifying additional chronic wasting disease cases in Zone D7 as it is one area where the disease has been detected. A new archery-only tule elk hunt of 30 tags was added, and changes to tag quotas for bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope and tule elk were also adopted.
As emergency regulations mandating chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing have expired, CDFW has developed adaptive CWD management zones based on proximity of CWD detections.
“One of the things we wanted to be able to do is that as we are finding CWD cases in other areas, we would have a flexible way of being able to turn on and turn off testing,” said CDFW Game Conservation and Wildlife Connectivity Program Manager Mario Klip.
Commissioners voted unanimously to name morro manzanita a candidate for endangered species status under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). Endemic to San Luis Obispo County, the species will now undertake a one-year status review before the Commission can make a final decision on its CESA listing.
The Commission adopted amendments to regulations governing the commercial sea urchin fishery. The amendments remove the Friday fishing prohibition in the northern fishery for June-October, remove a portion of the South Caspar Point sea urchin closure and allow commercial fishermen to assist sea urchin divers, among other changes. The amendments were proposed in a petition submitted by the California Sea Urchin Commission that aims to clarify and improve regulation efficiency.
Regulations were also amended for commercial harvest of kelp and edible seaweed, such as sea palm, to improve management of kelp and seaweed populations while also making regulations more enforceable. Amended regulations define sea palm harvest methods, restrict incidental take of marine invertebrates when harvesting sea palm, and prohibit sea palm harvest from Pigeon Point to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Commissioners adopted a 90-day extension of emergency regulations to retain invasive golden mussel on the list of animals restricted from live importation, transportation and possession. Find more information about the invasive golden mussel on CDFW’s website. The Commission put emergency regulations into effect in December 2024 and those regulations would have expired June 18 unless readopted.
Commission President Erika Zavaleta, Vice President Samantha Murray and Commissioner Eric Sklar were in attendance for both days of the April Commission meeting. Commissioner Darius Anderson was present for the first day of the meeting and Commissioner Jacque Hostler-Carmesin was absent both days.
The complete agenda for this meeting, along with supporting information, is available on the Commission website (opens in new tab). Archived video of past Commission meetings (opens in new tab) is available online. A teleconference meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission is scheduled for May 14, followed by its June 11-12 meeting. The June meeting will be held at the East End Complex Auditorium, 1500 Capitol Ave., Sacramento. Participants can attend in person with options for Zoom or by phone; for the agenda and more information visit the Commission website (opens in new tab).
Potential regulation changes
The Commission approved notifying the public regarding proposed regulation changes for the commercial market squid fishery along with draft amendments to the California Market Squid Fishery Management Plan; This is the first amendment to a California fishery management plan ever considered. The commercial market squid fishery is California’s largest in both volume and value. The changes will be discussed at the Commission’s June 11-12 meeting in Sacramento and are scheduled for potential adoption at the Aug. 13-14 meeting.
Additional upcoming potential regulation changes to the California Code of Regulations, Title 14, include:
- Amendments to sections 670 and 703, regarding falconry regulations
- Amendments to sections 29.80, 29.85, 195 and 701 related to recreational crab fishing gear and commercial passenger fishing vessel trap validations
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Media Contacts:
Krysten Kellum, CDFW Communications, (916) 825-7120
Katie Talbot, CDFW Communications, (916) 204-1381