BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 1299 (Huffman)
Hearing Date: 08/15/2011 Amended: 07/06/2011
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: NR&W 5-3
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 1299 amends the Marine Life Management Act, to
require the Department of Fish and Game to use ecosystem-based
management principals when adopting or amending fishery
management plans for specified forage species.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Adopting or amending Likely costs in the hundreds of
thousandsSpecial *
fishery management plans per year.
* Fish and Game Preservation Fund.
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Under the Marine Life Management Act (AB 1241, Keeley, 1999),
the Department of Fish and Game is required to manage marine
resources for their long-term economic, recreational,
ecological, cultural and social benefits. To this end, the
Department is required to develop fishery management plans,
which are science-based planning documents for the commercial
take of those species. The department is required to develop
fishery management plans for all regulated fisheries. To date,
the Department has approved three fishery management plans and
one other is in development.
AB 1299 defines forage species to include a number of specific
species of fish, squid, jellyfish, and zooplankton (including
sardines, herring, and market squid). In addition, the bill
authorizes the Fish and Game Commission to designate additional
species, based on their role in marine ecosystems.
AB 1299 (Huffman)
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The bill amends the Marine Life Management Act, by stating that
the state has a policy objective of ensuring the conservation
and restoration of forage species through ecosystem-based
management.
The bill requires that any fishery management plan adopted or
amended after January 1, 2012 to be consistent with the new
policy, to the extent that scientific data is available. When
adopting or amending fishery management plans, the Department is
required to review the best available scientific information and
then consider a variety of issues relating to forage species,
their role in ocean ecosystems, their impact on predatory
species, the impacts of fishery regulations on both forage
species and predatory species, and other issues.
The Department indicates that the bill will impose new costs, by
expanding the kinds of analyses that are conducted as part of
the development or amendment of fishery management plans. In
order to comply with the bill's requirements, the Department
indicates that it will incur additional costs of about $250,000
for each new or amended fishery management plan. The total
annual cost of the bill will depend on the pace at which the
Department adopts or amends fishery management plans. Given the
slow pace of adopting fishery management plans to date, costs
are not likely to be more than about $250,000 per year.
Depending on the ways that the bill influences future fishery
management plans, the bill may increase the Department's costs
to oversee and enforce those plans. The extent to which that may
occur is unknown.