Featured Scientist

Christy prepares for a day’s work underwater at La Jolla.


Christy Juhasz works on an abalone density survey off the northern California coast.

CDFW Environmental Scientist Christy Juhasz works for the Marine Region’s Invertebrate Management Project, where she is primarily responsible for managing California’s Dungeness crab fisheries. Christy coordinates preseason quality and domoic acid testing for the commercial fishery, summarizes seasonal landings data and works on rulemaking proposals for both the commercial and recreational Dungeness fisheries.

A Southern California native, Christy earned a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, with a minor in oceanography, from the University of California, Los Angeles. Soon after graduating, Christy’s first paid position involved monitoring and trapping the invasive European green crab in several northern California bays and estuaries. Afterwards, she began working for CDFW as a scientific aid at the Shellfish Health Laboratory, located at the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, where she spent several years testing quality control measures of a sabellid, polychaete worm that had been introduced at aquaculture facilities.

In 2007, she became a certified CDFW diver and began assisting in abalone density surveys conducted on the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts. In 2011, she was hired in her current position to work on Dungeness crab fisheries management.

What led you to a career in marine biology?

As a child, I spent an inordinate amount at the coast and particularly enjoyed exploring tidepools. I was always fascinated by the creatures that eke out an existence on the water’s edge, fostering my love of marine invertebrate species. This only grew after taking an invertebrate taxonomy course, becoming certified in scientific diving and volunteering at a small, local marine aquarium while in college where I was able to share my love of native California marine life with the public.

Not many people can say they get to dive as part of their job duties. What’s that like?

Before coming to work at CDFW, most of my diving experience was in the warmer waters of Southern California and the Bahamas for training and research, respectively. Diving in the colder and rougher northern California ocean waters has been interesting. My job has taken me to some beautiful underwater habitat where diverse and colorful kelps, invertebrates and rockfish species abound, while also making me a much better diver.

One interesting CDFW dive location includes the site of Mavericks, although not at the height of the surfing season. We were there to assess the red abalone population within the Marine Protected Area and I was able to observe firsthand the effects of the intense wave action that had eroded away the subtidal rocky reef promontories.

How frequently do you get to dive?

Recently, I had my first child so have not been able to get back underwater as intensely since before I was pregnant. Prior to this, I was an active CDFW diver, primarily assisting with monitoring red abalone populations in the summer months. Diving and field work, in general, are always fun to go out and do in coastal locations, but they do require a lot of planning and preparation. Actual collection of data while SCUBA diving really teaches you to be in the moment, as you have multiple tasks to complete underwater. Obviously safety is paramount and you have to pay attention to the air you consume while you’re working, which ultimately limits the amount time you have underwater.

Today, most of your work relates to Dungeness crab. What do you find interesting about this particular fishery?

The Dungeness crab commercial fishery is one of California’s highest valued fisheries and is also one of the state’s oldest fisheries. In fact, regulations governing take of legal-sized males around a set seasonal period date back to the turn of the 20th century, and are known as the 3-S management principle (sex, size and season). The fishery does widely fluctuate from season to season, but with California landings dating back to just over 100 seasons, there have been no observable, long-term crashes in catch history. In recent seasons, the fishery has experienced some record landings in both management areas of the fishery, especially in the central region, which in the past decades rarely contributed to the majority of statewide landings.

I enjoy and thrive in my job under the dynamic and varying responsibilities and tasks that support the operations of the fishery. Whether I’m working on rulemaking packages, meeting with constituents for various issues or incorporating new or more extensive sampling procedures – it’s all very interesting.

Do you work with species other than Dungeness crab?

Yes. Some of my monitoring and rulemaking work involves other invertebrate fisheries in California, which have been increasing in importance (see link to journal article below). This raises new challenges for fisheries managers, especially considering the many invertebrate fisheries we oversee and the various life history strategies characteristic of each species.

For instance, red urchin and red abalone have to be relatively near one another for successful fertilization after they release their gametes into the water column. This is in contrast to Dungeness crab, which mate during the period when females molt, and brood eggs before they hatch. These differences just reveal how each fishery requires a unique set of regulations to effectively manage them.

What is the most rewarding project that you’ve worked on for CDFW?

I have been collaborating with other CDFW staff to monitor the arrival of the Dungeness crab megalopae – that’s the last pelagic, larval stage of crabs before they molt and settle to the bottom as juveniles – to California’s bays and estuaries. The study aims to determine if there is link between their relative number and size, and perhaps predict commercial catch three to four years later, which is about when these crabs would grow into the fishery. Work on this is still preliminary, but in the time we have been observing, we have noticed big differences in total numbers and average size. This may be driven by optimal ocean conditions since the planktonic larval stages spend an average of four months total in the water column during the winter and spring months.

I’m also involved in the rulemaking process for the Dungeness crab commercial fishery. One current development is the creation of a formal statewide program for incentivizing the retrieval of lost and abandoned Dungeness crab traps at the end of each season. The fishery has rules in place such as the use of a destruct device that wears away, to allow escapement and prevent a lost or abandoned trap from continuously capturing organisms. However, traps attached to a buoy with vertical lines in the water column that remain in the water past the season pose additional hazards to marine life and vessel traffic. The industry has been piloting local programs for the past several seasons. A formal program is expected to be in place by the end of the 2018-19 season.

Recent seasons of the Dungeness crab fishery have been plagued by high domoic acid levels and low quality, leading to season delays. How has this changed the nature of your work?

The pre-season quality testing has been conducted for the northern portion of the fishery for many years in concert with Washington and Oregon testing. Although procedures have been modified over the years, the scheduled delays are built into the current operations of the fishery. The fishery cannot be delayed due to quality issues past January 15, whereas with domoic acid season delays are unpredictable.

Our efforts to monitor Dungeness crab are more extensive before the start of the season. Dungeness crab fishermen are key players in this task, as I call and email with them to collect and retrieve samples throughout the fishery’s range statewide (this is similar to how the quality testing is conducted as well). I also coordinate with staff from the California of Department of Public Health to ensure that samples collected are properly received by their laboratory testing facility. During the 2015-16 delayed season, CDFW staff worked tirelessly on this sampling effort while navigating the problem under current regulations and effectively communicating the latest information on the status of the delay and potential opening of the season. This was especially important in light of lost revenue due to the unforeseen delays.

Do you expect that domoic acid will continue to be a problem in future seasons?

Domoic acid is a neurotoxin produced by a unicellular algal organisms that thrive in warm water. The domoic acid problem that caused the severe delay of the 2015-16 season was thought to be a direct effect of the anomalous (unusual) ocean warming from the “warm blob” that developed off of US West Coast in 2014. As these anomalous warming ocean conditions persist, so does the problem of harmful algal blooms that cause domoic acid. This has become a top priority for discussion between industry, the Dungeness crab task force and other affected fisheries and agencies. 

CDFW Photos. Top Photo: Christy measuring a dungeness crab.

For Further Reading:

• 2011 Annual Status of the Fisheries Report – Dungeness crab (PDF)
• Marine Invertebrate Survey and Assessment Project
• The Rise of Invertebrate Fisheries and the Fishing Down of Marine Food Webs in California published in California Fish and Game’s Journal 100th Edition (PDF)

Sara Borok is an environmental scientist with the Klamath River project. She is responsible for counting the sport harvest on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers and for gathering natural spawner escapement data (which involves counting deceased fish which have finished spawning) on the Salmon River and approximately three dozen tributaries of the Klamath River above the Trinity River. She is also the co-coordinator of the Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team.

Borok initially studied forestry at Humboldt State University before changing her major and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife management. She jokes that she also “majored in minors” by earning minors in forestry, fisheries, art and music.

She has worked her entire CDFW career in the Klamath Basin, striving to “bridge the desires of our constituents and protecting the health of the fishery” as she counted live fish going out of the river and the dead fish that returned and spawned.

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

Even when I was young I knew I wanted to work in the outdoors. I am from the era of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” and I always wanted to be the assistant, “Jim.” He always had the cool jobs! I grew up in Southern California, and when I started high school, there was a wonderful summer school class, Outdoor Biology, that taught basic sampling techniques. We went to Catalina Island to do some marsh sampling, and I got hooked. I used to seek out wild places, often riding my bike up to Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades and then hiking in four miles to find some solitude.

Who or what brought you to CDFW? What inspires you to stay?

When I was 16, I worked for the Youth Conservation Corps, and later at Will Rogers State Park, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve and at Ft. Clatsop, which is part of Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. I started out with CDFW in 1985 as a seasonal aid working the Klamath Creel Crew for Jim Hopelain, a wildlife biologist who at that time served in my current position. I fell in love with the idea of getting paid to do this job out in the woods. I still cannot believe that I get paid for what I get to do.

What is a typical day like for you at work?

During the “creel season” in April through November, I help the crew at busy spots on the Klamath River by interviewing anglers about their effort and catch of salmon and steelhead. We keep track of the numbers because they dictate size restrictions. Once a certain number of fish have been caught, anglers can’t keep the big ones anymore.

I also help out during the “carcass season” in October through December by organizing crews with individuals drawn from CDFW as well as other state agencies, tribes, volunteer groups and schools. Those crews then are kept quite busy counting dead fish to determine the “floor escapement,” or the number of fish that are returning to the river to spawn in natural areas. We need to meet a minimum number before we can allow any kind of harvest.

I field a lot of complaints from anglers, typically regarding our regulations! It is helpful that I have a great group of people working for me and with me who do a lot of the hard work.

What is most challenging about working with fish?

I would say that wading through large amounts of swift-moving water is the most challenging aspect. In years such as this past season, when we had such heavy rains, we had a hard time getting out on the tributaries to get good counts of the few spawned-out fish that were out there. Other challenges, ones that have nothing to do with the weather, are gaining access to specific areas from private landowners and the simple matter of having to cover such a large geographic area.

What is special about working in the Klamath Basin?

The Klamath kind of grows on you. I have been working in the basin for 32 years (wow, it doesn’t seem that long!). Working with live fish is the best, but even during spawning season the beauty out on the rivers makes up for dealing with dead fish. There are also really wonderful people living and working up here. I have worked every Labor Day Weekend for the last 20 years, and I get to see some of the same families that come up to fish then. It is like a big family reunion.

What is the most rewarding project that you’ve worked on for CDFW?

I work with a huge cooperative group of agencies, tribes, non-government groups, volunteers and school kids. We all get along and work hard to get the work done. What is really rewarding to me is that we have school kids who come out and do the spawner surveys with us. The students are actually walking through the water along with CDFW staff, counting carcasses. Their enthusiasm in being out in the fields is always refreshing and amusing. There have been a few who fell in love with this type of work and went on to school in this type of field and then came back to work on this very project.

Any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

Learn basic accounting, people management, vehicle repairs, public relations and logistics, as you will be spending more time on this kind of stuff than on the science.

I have been thinking of teaching a short class at Humboldt State University on all the other stuff like this that you will need to be a biologist/environmental scientist. People should also learn to work without the aid of fancy gadgets, as there may not be cell reception when you are out in the river or woods, and gadgets tend to fail when you need those most. Learn to improvise!