The California spiny lobster Panulirus interruptus fishery is the third most economically important fishery in the Santa Barbara region.  The establishment of a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) requires all inputs and outputs of a fishery to be defined.  This project aims at establishing an easily adaptable methodology to collect information regarding recreational spiny lobster fisheries , with the goal of beginning to derive estimates the total recreational harvest of P. interruptus in the Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands.  A secondary objective of our investigation will describe the impacts of harvest closures within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary on the recreational fisheries.  More specifically, have harvest and fisherman behavior been impacted or changed by the establishment of permanent spatial harvest closures?  The primary data gathering mechanism of this exercise is a stated preference and behavior survey.  The purpose of this project is to provide the crucial information, tools, and perspective necessary in taking steps towards the FMP process for this species, while encouraging collaboration between these stakeholders toward the establishment of a sustainable fishery.

 

 

 

Estimating Recreational Harvest

of Panulirus interruptus in the Santa Barbara Channel and Northern Channel Islands