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)

Cynthia Catton is an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Region. Based in the Bodega Bay field office at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, her main responsibilities are in Marine Invertebrate Fisheries and Conservation Research. She works primarily in kelp forest ecosystems throughout the state, with a particular focus on abalone populations. She conducts research to inform the management of the recreational red abalone fishery in northern California and the restoration of endangered species in southern California. She also contributes to research on Dungeness crab, sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

Cynthia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology with a Marine Emphasis at the University of Washington, Seattle. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Biological Oceanography and a doctorate in Biological Oceanography, both at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

In 2012, she joined CDFW as an environmental scientist. Here, she represents the U.S. and Canada for the International Abalone Society, has served on the CDFW climate change working group and developed curriculum for the CDFW marine Climate Change College. Previously, Cynthia conducted marine life research in Washington, Australia and California, including work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Research Council.

What inspired you to become a scientist?

I was one of those unusual people who knew I wanted to go into marine biology at an early age. Originally, I wanted to be an underwater photographer. I learned to dive when I was 16 and joined two Explorer Scout troops, one sponsored by a local dive club and another sponsored by NOAA. In the latter, I met marine biologists and got to ask all about their work.

I was fascinated by marine invertebrates early on, because they’re such odd, beautiful creatures, so I was searching for a way to be involved in the marine environment. In college, I decided to be a science major to support my photography interest, then discovered that I really liked research. So now, my photography supports my scientific research! I think that art and science are very complementary fields, and that using art to explain science can be very powerful.

What is your typical day at work like?

I can’t say I have a “typical” work day; my days are extremely varied and depend on the season. During field season—which used to be summer, but is expanding—I board a boat early in the morning to start a day of SCUBA work, counting and measuring abalone and other species in their environment.

I sometimes spend a lot of time driving to a site far from my lab, even to southern California. I may be outside in rubber boots and foul-weather gear to interview fishers about what they are catching, usually abalone or clams. At other times, I get to look at the data we collected during the field season and identify patterns of changes we’re seeing in populations. We use the data to understand why we’re seeing those changes and what they mean. Then, I can relay that information to the Fish & Game Commission, the public and the scientific community.

What is your favorite species to interact with or study? Why?

I can’t really name a favorite, though I have always really enjoyed marine invertebrates. My first interest was octopus, because they’re just an incredibly unusual species and fascinating to watch move and interact with the world. I’m pretty excited now because we have started a project in southern California where we are studying the interactions between octopus and abalone. We’re collaborating with an octopus biologist to help us with our efforts to restore endangered white abalone populations, because the octopus like to eat the abalone. We are learning about how to minimize octopus predation on the juvenile abalone that we are introducing to the ocean.

What is it about your work that you find the most interesting?

I really enjoy the variety in my work days. I appreciate being able to get out in the field and observe the organisms in their environment, collecting the data myself. That gives you important perspective for the analysis of the data later. It’s important to understand the nuances in the data when you are running the analysis, and it is likewise important for those in the field to keep in mind the requirements of the statistics. My work requires many different skill sets, and keeps me challenged.

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

So much of what I do is really rewarding, but I think the most rewarding part is working as a team to solve problems. For example, I’m part of a very large collaboration on restoring white abalone populations in southern California. White abalone was the first marine invertebrate to be federally listed as endangered, and its population has been declining by 12 percent a year for over a decade. Using data from NOAA surveys of wild populations, I have estimated that we will have fewer than 1,000 white abalone in southern California by 2029. That just leaves us a little over a decade to move on re-establishing self-sustaining populations. It’s a complicated problem, but I get to work with people from lots of different backgrounds to come up with some really creative solutions. The first phase of the work has been developing a strong captive breeding program, focused here at Bodega Marine Lab and at partner aquaria in Southern California. We are now starting the next phase and will work to place these abalone into their natural environment. It’s really rewarding when we can work together and see the project grow successfully.

On the north coast, I am pulling together another team of folks to tackle the problems we are facing with the recent severe loss of bull kelp. We are working to understand the potential for the bull kelp to recover and how we can support that recovery. It is a real challenge to the fisheries and our small coastal communities, and I am pleased to lead this problem-solving effort. It’s really empowering and inspiring when we can get a whole community together—urchin divers, citizen volunteers and scientists — to come to the table and contribute their ideas and time. Our blog article on The Perfect Storm has already attracted more than 50 volunteers.

If you had free reign and unlimited funding, what scientific project would you most like to do?

That’s fairly easy: save the kelp forest! It needs a lot of funding and experts to address different aspects of it. The issues we’re seeing with the kelp forest are a combination of really large-scale stressors to the system, hitting the kelp forest from many different angles. These kinds of compounding stressors on a system are what we expect to see more of with climate change. There are many large-scale changes to ecosystems that we are seeing occur around the world. The recent mass mortality of corals in the Great Barrier Reef is one example. The loss of the bull kelp forest in northern California is another huge issue, and I see this as our responsibility to respond to it. I am currently working on forming a broad collaboration of researchers to expand our understanding of the large-scale kelp forest dynamics, reaching up the coast into Alaska. If we can bring people and data together, we can work on fully understanding the problems we are facing and identifying the most effective solutions.

Do you have any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

Follow your passion. Science, and natural resource management in particular, is a challenging career choice. Your passion will help motivate you to overcome those challenges, and it will inspire others to join you in your work.