NOAA scientists present 2024–25 California Current ecosystem report; council to pick SSC review topics

California Current ecosystem scientists told the Pacific Fishery Management Council on March 20 that a strong 2023–24 El Niño delayed spring upwelling but that the system experienced strong, rapid upwelling later in 2024 that helped rebuild nearshore productivity and forage availability.

The CCIEA (California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment) team presented the 2024–25 California Current Ecosystem Status Report and a set of candidate topics for the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) to review in 2025. Scientists said the year combined both positive signals — abundant juvenile forage species, higher krill and copepod abundances after the upwelling resumed and a 3% coastwide revenue increase driven by market squid — and persistent stressors including an offshore marine heat wave, multiple harmful algal bloom (HAB) events that affected shellfish fisheries, continued salmon closures in California, and increased humpback whale entanglements.

Why it matters: the ESR (ecosystem status report) is designed to give managers concise ecosystem indicators they can use in fishery and protected‑species decisions. The council must decide which ecosystem science topics it wants the SSC to review in 2025; that review can change how indicators are…