This is the twelfth and final in a yearlong series of stories showcasing the research that the Ocean Protection Council supported in partnership with California Sea Grant, with funding from Proposition 84.

Growing up in a farming family in the Salinas Valley, Tara Pozzi learned about the impacts of extreme weather, particularly flooding. After she left for college and began to connect those flood events to the broader impacts of climate change, Pozzi began to think bigger: There’s a network of actors influencing regional adaptation efforts, she realized.

Throughout 2024, California Sea Grant is showcasing our State Fellowship, which places graduate students in 12-month paid roles with the agencies and organizations that plan, implement and manage ocean policies and programs in California. This month, the fourth in the series, we’re highlighting fellows working along the Central Coast.

California Sea Grant has secured $126,582 in funding to extend its Commercial Fishing Apprenticeship Program from San Diego to central and northern California. The program addresses critical workforce challenges faced by the commercial fishing industry in California, where fleets are aging and new entrants need training to help with the complexity of regulations and to take advantage of new marketing opportunities.