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• California’s Missing Monarchs: Scientists Work to Reverse a Worrisome Trend

  

  USFWS Photo by Brett Billings Figure 1 from The Xerces Society’s Conservation Status and Ecology of the Monarch Butterfly in the United States (PDF) For residents of many coastal California towns, the colorful Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus plexippus) migration has been a welcome wintertime sight for generations. The beautiful and distinctive orange-and-black patterned insects have historically congregated at more than 400 known sites in the Golden State. Visitors flock to see them, and some towns – such as Pacific Grove, Big Sur and Pismo Beach -- have built entire economies around the return of the butterflies. The life history of the Monarch butterfly is fascinating in that none of the individuals that arrive each winter have ever been there before. Each year, the Monarchs that were born throughout western North America flutter to the warmer climates of the California coast, typically in mid-October, but sometimes as early as September. They form dense masses high in the trees, where they remain relatively dormant (scientifically known as reproductive diapause) until February or March, when flowers with nectar and the milkweed needed by their young ...

• CDFW Kelp Survey

  

  Beneath the waters off the California coast are vast forests that are home to an astounding variety of animals. Their sunlit canopies can soar 150 feet from the ocean’s floor. But instead of trees, these forests are made of kelp. Worldwide, kelp is used in a host of everyday products like toothpaste, pudding, ice cream and even pharmaceuticals. Although kelp is valuable to humans, it is critical to sustaining life for many ocean-dwelling wildlife species ranging from microscopic plankton to sea otters, pelagic birds and predatory fishes. When a kelp forest is depleted, the entire underwater ecosystem can be thrown out of balance. This is why CDFW scientists are tracking and studying the amount of kelp growing in coastal waters. In 1989, CDFW marine biologists began using aerial surveys to monitor the size of the kelp forests off of California’s coast. A second survey was conducted a decade later, and since 2002, CDFW has made an effort to conduct these surveys annually (although budget issues sometimes require skipping a year). The surveys are conducted along the entire coastline and offshore of ...

• Remotely Operated Vehicle Gives Scientists an Underwater View into California’s MPAs

  

  The ROV Beagle (CDFW photo) Starry Rockfish from the Channel Islands (CDFW photo) Yelloweye and Vermilion rockfishes from the North Coast (CDFW photo) Canary Rockfish from the North Coast (CDFW photo) Lingcod, white-plumed anemones, female kelp greenling (CDFW photo) Quillback Rockfish and Basket Stars from the North Coast (CDFW photo) Benthic siphophores use threads to walk and anchor to the seafloor (CDFW photo) ROV Beagle (CDFW photo by Michael Prall) Marine scientists from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE) recently completed an unprecedented three-year survey of deep-water habitats off the California coast using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Beginning in 2014, MARE’s ROV Beagle was deployed throughout the state to survey and record the species and types of habitats associated with marine protected areas (MPAs) and nearby, comparable rocky habitats. Surveys were video-based and provided a first look at the many recently established MPAs throughout the state and generated much needed data on abundance and distribution of fish species harvested from rocky habitats. According to Marine Environmental Scientist Mike Prall, “Many of the areas visited by the ROV Beagle ...

• Science Spotlight: Increasing the Genetic Diversity of White Abalone

  

  A newly collected female wild white abalone releases eggs during the captive breeding program’s annual spawning event. This was the first new genetic input in the captive population for 14 years. Photo taken for CDFW by M. Ready At nearly 130 feet underwater, CDFW abalone researcher Dr. Laura Rogers-Bennett didn’t have much time. Her dive computer told her it was time to ascend, which meant that she would have to stop searching for the endangered white abalone hiding in the waving fields of red and gold gorgonians. Reluctantly, she watched the beautiful scene drop away below her as she kicked slowly upwards. She moved through the towering elk kelp towards her safety stop, a precious white abalone kept solidly in her grasp. On that trip, back in 2004, Rogers-Bennett and Ian Taniguchi, another CDFW abalone expert, and a team of other scientist divers collected 21 critically endangered white abalone off the deep reefs in the Channel Islands. This collection trip was conducted in an effort to save the species before they disappeared from the wild, and to create a captive breeding ...

• Enumerating California’s Most Elusive Residents: Puma concolor

  

  It’s just before dawn in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mono County. It’s a cold clear morning, a good day to be out experiencing a still very much wild area of California. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) biologist Justin Dellinger and a Wildlife Services houndsman are preparing gear to go out looking for fresh mountain lion tracks in this vast landscape. With the help of a team of highly trained dogs, Dellinger and the tracker are focused on the ultimate goal: Capturing a mountain lion and outfitting it with a GPS collar for research purposes. This tracking effort in Mono County is part of a larger project to estimate mountain lion population size statewide. It began in the southern Cascades and northern Sierra-Nevada Mountains in 2015, and since then CDFW has solely undertaken or collaborated on similar efforts in the north coast, Modoc plateau and here in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It’s tough work with long hours; trackers can spend days or even weeks in pursuit of lions. Yet tracking remains the gold standard method of ...

• Replenishing Southern California’s Abalone Populations

  

  WARC diver Shelby Kawana assesses habitat at one of the CDFW red abalone stocking sites located off the coast of southern California. WARC diver Armand Barilotti assesses habitat at one of the CDFW red abalone stocking sites located off the coast of southern California. Octopus are a top abalone predator and therefor pose a threat to newly stocked juvenile red abalone populations. Researchers catch and relocate octopus when they are found hiding in crevasses near stocking sites. A rediscovered stocked red abalone was found clinging to the underside of a rock during a one year post stocking survey. Harvesting abalone for dinner used to be as fundamental to a Southern California lifestyle as fish tacos and flip-flops. But by 1998, a combination of overfishing and disease led to the closure of all abalone fishery south of San Francisco. By 2001, the white abalone was listed as an endangered species because populations continued to decline despite protection from fishing pressure. Population numbers are so low today that the only option for recovery is believed to be through a robust captive breeding and ...