Socioeconomic Baseline Data Collection, Resource-Use Mapping and Rapid Social Assessment

How will the Central Coast MPAs affect commercial fishers? Will open fishing areas become overly crowded? Will catches decline or improve over time? What is going to happen to prices? This project is collecting socioeconomic data that will allow managers to monitor the behavioral response of fishermen to different regulatory regimes and to answer these types of questions. Such information can be used to recognize and respond to unanticipated and/or unwanted fallout from the regulatory actions. The data collection process for this project involves analyzing CDFG catch records and interviewing between 300 and 600 commercial fishers about where they have historically fished, at what depths, when and for what species, with what gear, at what ex-vessel price, among other things. Recreational fishers and spearfishers will also be interviewed, as will “nonconsumptive” users, including kayakers, surfers and wildlife watchers to understand how MPAs are affecting them.