If you visit the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR) 15 miles south of San Diego, you might get lucky and spot a rare Coastal California gnatcatcher in flight or glimpse the long ears of a black-tailed jackrabbit. One of the largest and last remaining coastal wetlands in southern California, the preserve supports an impressive biodiversity, including several endangered species.

Few Californians know that the state’s coastline once featured humped dunes on over a quarter of its beaches. Today, in some places up to 98% of those dunes are gone, lost to development — flattened for the sake of modern beach aesthetics or, in some cases, to mine the sand.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the reverse of a classic river delta: Instead of branching out close to the sea, it starts narrow at the coast, then widens further inland. Spanning more than 1,100 square miles in Central California, including 60 reclaimed islands, protected by 1,330 miles of levees, the Delta provides habitats for more than 750 plant and wildlife species in ecosystems ranging from tidal channels to marshes to riverside forests and farmland.

Across the globe, aquaculture is the fastest-growing sector in food production — but the United States stands as an outlier. Although we are the world's second-largest consumer of seafood, the U.S. only produces 1% of the world's farmed seafood. That adds to our $20.3 billion seafood deficit, indicating the value of fish and other seafood imported from elsewhere to reach our dinner plates.

This is the eighth 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.

Over the next few months, California Sea Grant will highlight the work of our State Fellows. The State Fellowship 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, in the first in the series, we’re looking at several agencies in Northern California.

California Sea Grant welcomes Devin Fitzgerald as a new Staff Research Associate for the Extension Team. Devin is based out of San Jose State University’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and focuses on developing new techniques and markets for aquaculture.