Search

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) have measurable impacts on marine ecosystems and reliant fisheries and associated communities. However, how MHWs translate to changes in fishing opportunities and the displacement of fishing fleets remains poorly understood. Using fishing vessel tracking data from the automatic identification system (AIS), we developed vessel distribution models for two pelagic fisheries targeting highly migratory species, the U.S. Atlantic longline and Pacific troll fleets, to understand how MHW properties (intensity, size, and duration) influence core fishing grounds and fleet displacement. For both fleets, MHW size had the largest influence on fishing ground area with northern fishing grounds gaining and southern fishing grounds decreasing in area. However, fleet displacement in response to MHWs varied between coasts, as the Atlantic longline fleet displaced farther in southern regions whereas the most northern and southern regions of the Pacific troll fleet shifted farther. Characterizing fishing fleet responses to these anomalous conditions can help identify regional vulnerabilities under future extreme events and aid in supporting climate-readiness and resilience in pelagic fisheries.

Aim: Marine biodiversity faces unprecedented threats from anthropogenic climate change. Ecosystem responses to climate change have exhibited substantial variability in the direction and magnitude of redistribution, posing challenges for developing effective climate-adaptive marine management strategies. Location: The California Current Ecosystem (CCE), USA. Methods: We project suitable habitat for 10 highly migratory species in the California Current System using an ensemble of three high-resolution (~10 km) downscaled ocean projections under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5). Spanning the period from 1980 to 2100, our analysis focuses on assessing the direction and distance of distributional shifts, as well as changes in core habitat area for each species. Results: Our findings reveal a divergent response among species to climate impacts. Specifically, four species were projected to undergo significant poleward shifts exceeding 100 km, and gain habitat (~7%–60%) in response to climate change. Conversely, six species were projected to shift towards the coast, resulting in a loss of habitat ranging from 10% to 66% by the end of the century. These divergent responses could typically be characterized by the mode of thermoregulation (i.e. ectotherm vs. endotherm) and species' affiliations with cool and productive upwelled waters that are characteristic of the region. Furthermore, our study highlights an increase in niche overlap between protected species and those targeted by fisheries, which may lead to increased human interaction events under climate change. Main Conclusions: By providing valuable species distribution projections, our research contributes to the understanding of climate change effects on marine biodiversity and offers critical insight and support for developing climate-ready management of protected and fished species.

2022 marked the third consecutive La Niña and extended the longest consecutive stretch of negative Oceanic Niño Index since 1998-2001. While physical and biological conditions in winter and spring largely adhered to prior La Niña conditions, summer and fall were very different. Similar to past La Niña events, in winter and spring coastal upwelling was either average or above average, temperature average or below average, salinity generally above average. In summer and fall, however, upwelling and temperature were generally average or slightly below average, salinity was close to average and chlorophyll a was close to average. Again, as during prior La Niña events, biomass of northern/southern copepods was above/below average off Oregon in winter, and body size of North Pacific krill in northern California was above average in winter. By contrast, later in the year the abundance of northern krill dropped off Oregon while southern copepods increased and body sizes of North Pacific krill fell in northern California. Off Oregon and Washington abundances of market squid and Pacific pompano (indicators of warm, non-typical La Niña conditions) were high. In the 20th century, Northern anchovy recruitment tended to be high during cold conditions, but despite mostly warm conditions from 2015-2021 anchovy populations boomed and remained high in 2022. Resident seabird reproductive success, which tended in the past to increase during productive La Niña conditions was highly variable throughout the system as common murre and pelagic cormorant, experienced complete reproductive failure at Yaquina Head, Oregon while Brandt’s cormorant reproduction was average. At three sampling locations off central California, however, common murre reproduction was close to or above average while both pelagic and Brandt’s cormorant were above average. California sealion reproduction has been above average each year since 2016, and pup weight was also above average in 2022, likely in response not to La Niña or El Niño but continuous high abundance of anchovy. The highly variable and often unpredictable physical and biological conditions in 2022 highlight a growing recognition of disconnects between basin-scale indices and local conditions in the CCE. “July-December 2022 is the biggest outlier from individual “strong” La Niña (events) ever going back to the 50s.” – Nate Mantua

As global climate change reorganizes marine ecosystems, understanding how predators will respond to variable prey resources is critical to forecasting future community dynamics. Prey traits that affect the foraging process and recur across unrelated taxa offer a means to better anticipate predator resource use by simplifying complex foraging dynamics. Here we compare taxonomic and trait-based indicators of resource use and selection for albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), a commercially valuable pelagic predator undergoing climate-driven range shifts. We synthesized datasets from 2005 to 2019 to evaluate diets of albacore tuna in relation to prey availability estimates from shipboard surveys in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem. Analyses with these data reveal that albacore and trawl surveys sample different aspects of the pelagic system, with albacore consuming a subset of taxa identified within trawls. Albacore consistently selected coastal prey that are schooling, undefended, silvered and countershaded, and have high energy density — suggesting that ecological mechanisms driving albacore foraging outcomes may be conserved across time and space. Ecological traits mediating predator-prey interactions consistently distinguished albacore diets from assemblages sampled by trawls across years and regions. We demonstrate that a traits-based approach simplifies taxonomically diverse predator-prey interactions and may be a valuable tool to facilitate predictions of prey resource use in changing environments.

The management and conservation of tuna and other transboundary marine species have to date been limited by an incomplete understanding of the oceanographic, ecological and socioeconomic factors mediating fishery overlap and interactions, and how these factors vary across expansive, open ocean habitats. Despite advances in fisheries monitoring and biologging technology, few attempts have been made to conduct integrated ecological analyses at basin scales relevant to pelagic fisheries and the highly migratory species they target. Here, we use vessel tracking data, archival tags, observer records, and machine learning to examine inter- and intra-annual variability in fisheries overlap (2013–2020) of five pelagic longline fishing fleets with North Pacific albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga, Scombridae). Although progressive declines in catch and biomass have been observed over the past several decades, the North Pacific albacore is one of the only Pacific tuna stocks primarily targeted by pelagic longlines not currently listed as overfished or experiencing overfishing. We find that fishery overlap varies significantly across time and space as mediated by (1) differences in habitat preferences between juvenile and adult albacore; (2) variation of oceanographic features known to aggregate pelagic biomass; and (3) the different spatial niches targeted by shallow-set and deep-set longline fishing gear. These findings may have significant implications for stock assessment in this and other transboundary fishery systems, particularly the reliance on fishery-dependent data to index abundance. Indeed, we argue that additional consideration of how overlap, catchability, and size selectivity parameters vary over time and space may be required to ensure the development of robust, equitable, and climate-resilient harvest control rules.

Species distribution models (SDMs) are becoming an important tool for marine conservation and management. Yet while there is an increasing diversity and volume of marine biodiversity data for training SDMs, little practical guidance is available on how to leverage distinct data types to build robust models. We explored the effect of different data types on the fit, performance and predictive ability of SDMs by comparing models trained with four data types for a heavily exploited pelagic fish, the blue shark (Prionace glauca), in the Northwest Atlantic: two fishery dependent (conventional mark-recapture tags, fisheries observer records) and two fishery independent (satellite-linked electronic tags, pop-up archival tags). We found that all four data types can result in robust models, but differences among spatial predictions highlighted the need to consider ecological realism in model selection and interpretation regardless of data type. Differences among models were primarily attributed to biases in how each data type, and the associated representation of absences, sampled the environment and summarized the resulting species distributions. Outputs from model ensembles and a model trained on all pooled data both proved effective for combining inferences across data types and provided more ecologically realistic predictions than individual models. Our results provide valuable guidance for practitioners developing SDMs. With increasing access to diverse data sources, future work should further develop truly integrative modeling approaches that can explicitly leverage the strengths of individual data types while statistically accounting for limitations, such as sampling biases.

Marine heatwaves cause widespread environmental, biological, and socio-economic impacts, placing them at the forefront of 21st-century management challenges. However, heatwaves vary in intensity and evolution, and a paucity of information on how this variability impacts marine species limits our ability to proactively manage for these extreme events. Here, we model the effects of four recent heatwaves (2014, 2015, 2019, 2020) in the Northeastern Pacific on the distributions of 14 top predator species of ecological, cultural, and commercial importance. Predicted responses were highly variable across species and heatwaves, ranging from near total loss of habitat to a two-fold increase. Heatwaves rapidly altered political bio-geographies, with up to 10% of predicted habitat across all species shifting jurisdictions during individual heatwaves. The variability in predicted responses across species and heatwaves portends the need for novel management solutions that can rapidly respond to extreme climate events. As proof-of-concept, we developed an operational dynamic ocean management tool that predicts predator distributions and responses to extreme conditions in near real-time.

Motivated by a need for climate-informed living marine resource management, increased emphasis has been placed on regional end-to-end modeling frameworks designed to project climate impacts on marine ecosystems and evaluate the efficacy of potential management strategies under changing conditions. The ‘Future Seas’ project was initiated with a focus on three fisheries (Pacific sardine, swordfish, and albacore tuna) in the California Current System (CCS). This work leverages a suite of climate, ocean, ecosystem, and economic models to project physical, ecological, and socio-economic change, evaluate management strategies, and quantify uncertainty in model projections. Here we describe the components of the modeling framework, considerations underlying choices made in model development, engagement with stakeholders, and key physical, ecological, and socio-economic results to date, including projections to 2100. Our broad aims are to (i) synthesize a large body of climate and fisheries research that has been conducted, and continues, under the Future Seas umbrella, and (ii) provide insight and recommendations to those pursuing similar efforts for other applications and in other regions. In general, our results indicate that all three species will likely shift their distributions (predominantly poleward) in the future, which impacts accessibility to fishing fleets, spatial management, and quota allocation. For similar integrative climate-to-fisheries projections, we recommend attention is given to: recognizing potential biases arising from differences between the climate products used for ecological model fitting and those used for model projection; how sources of projection uncertainty are prioritized, incorporated, and communicated; and quantitatively linking scenarios – especially socio-economic scenarios – with climate and ecological projections.

The world's eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUSs) contribute disproportionately to global ocean productivity and provide critical ecosystem services to human society. The impact of climate change on EBUSs and the ecosystems they support is thus a subject of considerable interest. Here, we review hypotheses of climate-driven change in the physics, biogeochemistry, and ecology of EBUSs; describe observed changes over recent decades; and present projected changes over the twenty-first century. Similarities in historical and projected change among EBUSs include a trend toward upwelling intensification in poleward regions, mitigatedwarming in near-coastal regions where upwelling intensifies, and enhanced water-column stratification and a shoaling mixed layer. However, there remains significant uncertainty in how EBUSs will evolve with climate change, particularly in how the sometimes competing changes in upwelling intensity, source-water chemistry, and stratification will affect productivity and ecosystem structure. We summarize the commonalities and differences in historical and projected change in EBUSs and conclude with an assessment of key remaining uncertainties and questions. Future studies will need to address these questions to better understand, project, and adapt to climate-driven changes in EBUSs.

Introduction: Understanding how abundance, productivity and distribution of individual species may respond to climate change is a critical first step towards anticipating alterations in marine ecosystem structure and function, as well as developing strategies to adapt to the full range of potential changes. Methods: This study applies the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries Climate Vulnerability Assessment method to 64 federally-managed species in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem to assess their vulnerability to climate change, where vulnerability is a function of a species’ exposure to environmental change and its biological sensitivity to a set of environmental conditions, which includes components of its resiliency and adaptive capacity to respond to these new conditions. Results: Overall, two-thirds of the species were judged to have Moderate or greater vulnerability to climate change, and only one species was anticipated to have a positive response. Species classified as Highly or Very Highly vulnerable share one or more characteristics including: 1) having complex life histories that utilize a wide range of freshwater and marine habitats; 2) having habitat specialization, particularly for areas that are likely to experience increased hypoxia; 3) having long lifespans and low population growth rates; and/or 4) being of high commercial value combined with impacts from non-climate stressors such as anthropogenic habitat degradation. Species with Low or Moderate vulnerability are either habitat generalists, occupy deep-water habitats or are highly mobile and likely to shift their ranges. Discussion: As climate-related changes intensify, this work provides key information for both scientists and managers as they address the long-term sustainability of fisheries in the region. This information can inform near-term advice for prioritizing species-level data collection and research on climate impacts, help managers to determine when and where a precautionary approach might be warranted, in harvest or other management decisions, and help identify habitats or life history stages that might be especially effective to protect or restore.

Synthesis research in ecology and environmental science improves understanding, advances theory, identifies research priorities, and supports management strategies by linking data, ideas, and tools. Accelerating environmental challenges increases the need to focus synthesis science on the most pressing questions. To leverage input from the broader research community, we convened a virtual workshop with participants from many countries and disciplines to examine how and where synthesis can address key questions and themes in ecology and environmental science in the coming decade. Seven priority research topics emerged: (1) diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), (2) human and natural systems, (3) actionable and use-inspired science, (4) scale, (5) generality, (6) complexity and resilience, and (7) predictability. Additionally, two issues regarding the general practice of synthesis emerged: the need for increased participant diversity and inclusive research practices; and increased and improved data flow, access, and skill-building. These topics and practices provide a strategic vision for future synthesis in ecology and environmental science.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing incurs an annual cost of up to US$25 billion in economic losses, results in substantial losses of aquatic life, and has been linked to human rights violations. Vessel tracking data from the automatic identification system (AIS) are powerful tools for combating IUU, yet AIS transponders can be disabled, reducing its efficacy as a surveillance tool. We present a global dataset of AIS disabling in commercial fisheries, which obscures up to 6% (>4.9 M hours) of vessel activity. Disabling hot spots were located near the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Argentina and West African nations and in the Northwest Pacific, all regions of IUU concern. Disabling was highest near transshipment hot spots and near EEZ boundaries, particularly contested ones. We also found links between disabling and location hiding from competitors and pirates. These inferences on where and why activities are obscured provide valuable information to improve fisheries management.

Projecting the future distributions of commercially and ecologically important species has become a critical approach for ecosystem managers to strategically anticipate change, but large uncertainties in projections limit climate adaptation planning. Although distribution projections are primarily used to understand the scope of potential change-rather than accurately predict specific outcomes-it is nonetheless essential to understand where and why projections can give implausible results and to identify which processes contribute to uncertainty. Here, we use a series of simulated species distributions, an ensemble of 252 species distribution models, and an ensemble of three regional ocean climate projections, to isolate the influences of uncertainty from earth system model spread and from ecological modeling. The simulations encompass marine species with different functional traits and ecological preferences to more broadly address resource manager and fishery stakeholder needs, and provide a simulated true state with which to evaluate projections. We present our results relative to the degree of environmental extrapolation from historical conditions, which helps facilitate interpretation by ecological modelers working in diverse systems. We found uncertainty associated with species distribution models can exceed uncertainty generated from diverging earth system models (up to 70% of total uncertainty by 2100), and that this result was consistent across species traits. Species distribution model uncertainty increased through time and was primarily related to the degree to which models extrapolated into novel environmental conditions but moderated by how well models captured the underlying dynamics driving species distributions. The predictive power of simulated species distribution models remained relatively high in the first 30 years of projections, in alignment with the time period in which stakeholders make strategic decisions based on climate information. By understanding sources of uncertainty, and how they change at different forecast horizons, we provide recommendations for projecting species distribution models under global climate change.

Ensuring the long-term sustainability of tuna, billfish, and other transboundary fisheries resources begins with data on the status of stocks, as well as information concerning who catches what fish, when, where, and how. Despite recent improvements in fisheries monitoring and surveillance, such dynamics remain poorly understood across the high seas. Here we delineate and describe pelagic longline activity in the Pacific Ocean using a framework that integrates descriptive vessel information and tracking data with species-specific catch reports. When parsed by distinct vessel behaviors and attributes, disaggregated fisheries data highlight the existence of multi-national, multi-specific (i.e., targeting multiple species) fishing fleets, many of which target waters that span more than one management area. Our findings emphasize the need for increased coordination across regional and sub-regional governance bodies and suggest that effective and equitable management of the sector may require efforts to move beyond single-species, single-area controls and operational distinctions based primarily on vessel flag and/or gear type alone.

In late 2020, models predicted that a strong La Niña would take place for the first time since 2013, and we assessed whether physical and biological indicators in 2021 were similar to past La Niñas in the California Current Ecosystem (CCE). The Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Oceanic Niño Index indeed remained negative throughout 2021; the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation Index, however, remained strongly negative. The seventh largest marine heatwave on record was unexpectedly present from April to the end of 2021; however, similar to past La Niñas, this mass of warm water mostly remained seaward of the continental shelf. As expected from past La Niñas, upwelling and chlorophyll were mostly high and sea surface temperature was low throughout the CCE; however, values were close to average south of Point Conception. Similar to past La Niñas, abundances of lipid-rich, northern copepods off Oregon increased. In northern California, unlike past La Niñas, the body size of North Pacific krill (Euphausia pacifica) was close to average. Predictably, overall krill abundance was above average in far northern California but, unexpectedly, below average south of Cape Mendocino. Off Oregon, similar to past La Niñas, larval abundances of three of six coastal species rose, while five of six southern/offshore taxa decreased in 2021. Off California, as expected based on 2020, Northern Anchovy (Engraulis mordax) were very abundant, while Pacific Sardine (Sardinops sagax) were low. Similar to past La Niñas, market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) and young of the year (YOY) Pacific Hake (Merluccius pacificus), YOY sanddabs (Citharichthys spp.), and YOY rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) increased. Southern mesopelagic (e.g., Panama lightfish Vinciguerria lucetia, Mexican lampfish Triphoturus mexicanus) larvae decreased as expected but were still well above average, while northern mesopelagic (e.g., northern lampfish Stenobrachius leucopsarus) larvae increased but were still below average. In line with predictions, most monitored bird species had above-average reproduction in Oregon and California. California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) pup count, growth, and weight were high given the abundant Anchovy forage. The CCE entered an enduring La Niña in 2021, and assessing the responses of various ecosystem components helped articulate aspects of the system that are well understood and those that need further study.

Social information is predicted to enhance the quality of animals' migratory decisions in dynamic ecosystems, but the relative benefits of social information in the long-range movements of marine megafauna are unknown. In particular, whether and how migrants use nonlocal information gained through social communication at the large spatial scale of oceanic ecosystems remains unclear. Here we test hypotheses about the cues underlying timing of blue whales' breeding migration in the Northeast Pacific via individual-based models parameterized by empirical behavioral data. Comparing emergent patterns from individual-based models to individual and population-level empirical metrics of migration timing, we find that individual whales likely rely on both personal and social sources of information about forage availability in deciding when to depart from their vast and dynamic foraging habitat and initiate breeding migration. Empirical patterns of migratory phenology can only be reproduced by models in which individuals use long-distance social information about conspecifics' behavioral state, which is known to be encoded in the patterning of their widely propagating songs. Further, social communication improves pre-migration seasonal foraging performance by over 60% relative to asocial movement mechanisms. Our results suggest that long-range communication enhances the perceptual ranges of migrating whales beyond that of any individual, resulting in increased foraging performance and more collective migration timing. These findings indicate the value of nonlocal social information in an oceanic migrant and suggest the importance of long-distance acoustic communication in the collective migration of wide-ranging marine megafauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Seabird-vessel interactions are often studied through the lens of fisheries bycatch, but seabirds encounter many watercraft types. Western Gulls Larus occidentalis breeding on the Farallon Islands (California, USA) have a foraging domain that encompasses both shipping lanes and productive fishing grounds, resulting in ample opportunities for vessel encounters. Previous research showed that these Western Gulls can serve as ecosystem indicators because their foraging behavior is linked to ocean prey conditions, and because their foraging grounds overlap with that of Humpback Whales Megaptera novaeangliae, which can make prey accessible. Because ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are concerns for whales in this region, we investigated gull-vessel interactions as a proxy for identifying whale ship-strike risk by assessing the geographical overlap between GPS-tracked gulls and vessels using the Automatic Identification System. During 2014-2019, 40% of tracked gulls encountered a vessel, resulting in 85 encounters. Gulls mostly encountered cargo ships and tug/pilot boats, mainly within the shipping lanes (79%). Over 30% of these encounters co-occurred with gull foraging events, and most encounters were situated within shipping lanes (80%). Moreover, most gull foraging events began before the vessel encounters, which appeared to interrupt gull behavior. Interannual variability of encounters was mainly related to gull foraging locations: during years of high oceanic productivity, foraging more frequently occurred at sea rather than nearshore or on land, leading to more encounters with ships. This study builds on work that documented overlap between Humpback Whales and Western Gulls but did not test whether foraging gulls encountered vessels. We found that some vessel encounters coincided with gull foraging events; from that, we suggest that the real-time processing of seabird tracking data could provide additional information on whale distribution (which is more difficult to study) within regions of high ship-strike risk and could be included as another tool for dynamic ocean management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we update U.S. West Coast Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) that were published in 2015 using new data and approaches. Additionally, BIAs were delineated for two species that were not delineated in the 2015 BIAs: fin whales and Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW). While harbor porpoise BIAs remained the same, substantial changes were made for other species including identifying both larger overall areas (parent BIAs) and smaller core areas (child BIAs). For blue, fin, and humpback whales we identified, delineated, and scored BIAs using the overlap between the distribution and relative density from three data sources, leveraging the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches: 1) habitat density models based on Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) line-transect data from systematic ship surveys conducted through 2018, 2) satellite tag data from deployments conducted by three research groups, and 3) sightings of feeding behavior from non-systematic effort mostly associated with small-boat surveys for photo-identification conducted by Cascadia Research Collective. While the previous BIAs were based solely on a more subjective assignment from only the small boat sightings, here we incorporate the other two data sources and use a more rigorous, quantitative approach to identify higher density areas and integrate the data types. This resulted in larger, better-supported, objective BIAs compared to the previous effort. Our methods are also more consistent with the delineation of BIAs in other regions. For SRKWs, the parent BIA was based on a modification of the Critical Habitat boundaries defined by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada; a core BIA highlighting areas of intensified use was identified using both NOAA's Critical Habitat and kernel density analyses of satellite tag data. Gray whale BIAs were re-evaluated for the migratory corridor of Eastern North Pacific gray whales, for Pacific Coast Feeding Group feeding areas, and for gray whales that feed regularly in Puget Sound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simplifying complex species interactions can facilitate tracking and predicting functional responses to ecological stressors. This is important for highly migratory pelagic predators, exploiting diverse prey fields as they respond to dynamic environments. We reconstructed the historical resource use of albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) globally from the 1900s to 2015 and confirmed highly biodiverse diets with 308 prey species, and an additional 238 taxa at coarser taxonomic resolution. We synthesised prey diversity into seven functional trait guilds using hierarchical divisive clustering algorithms as a function of four traits that describe habitat use and influence predator–prey encounter rates – prey habitat association vertically in the water column, horizontally along the coastal to pelagic gradient, seasonal and diel vertical migratory behaviour. We explored variability in historical composition of albacore diets across geographies based on species identity, individual trait information and functional trait guilds using a multi‐matrix modelling framework. Taxonomic information remains important for trophic ecology, however, species‐based diet composition in albacore tuna was highly variable across geographies and years sampled, making interpretation of these patterns difficult. By simplifying species identity into habitat‐based traits, we highlight changes in prey resources consumed, such as the historical importance of near‐surface epipelagic prey resources from coastal to oceanic habitats, and seasonally migrating continental shelf prey, with less frequent pulses of deeper water and demersal taxa. Trait information and trait guilds serve as useful classification frameworks for identifying functionally redundant food web linkages across biodiverse prey, and will prove useful in tracking predators' foraging responses to changing resource availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2022 marked the third consecutive La Niña and extended the longest consecutive stretch of negative Oceanic Niño Index since 1998-2001. While physical and biological conditions in winter and spring largely adhered to prior La Niña conditions, summer and fall were very different. Similar to past La Niña events, in winter and spring coastal upwelling was either average or above average, temperature average or below average, salinity generally above average. In summer and fall, however, upwelling and temperature were generally average or slightly below average, salinity was close to average and chlorophyll a was close to average. Again, as during prior La Niña events, biomass of northern/southern copepods was above/below average off Oregon in winter, and body size of North Pacific krill in northern California was above average in winter. By contrast, later in the year the abundance of northern krill dropped off Oregon while southern copepods increased and body sizes of North Pacific krill fell in northern California. Off Oregon and Washington abundances of market squid and Pacific pompano (indicators of warm, non-typical La Niña conditions) were high. In the 20th century, Northern anchovy recruitment tended to be high during cold conditions, but despite mostly warm conditions from 2015-2021 anchovy populations boomed and remained high in 2022. Resident seabird reproductive success, which tended in the past to increase during productive La Niña conditions was highly variable throughout the system as common murre and pelagic cormorant, experienced complete reproductive failure at Yaquina Head, Oregon while Brandt's cormorant reproduction was average. At three sampling locations off central California, however, common murre reproduction was close to or above average while both pelagic and Brandt's cormorant were above average. California sealion reproduction has been above average each year since 2016, and pup weight was also above average in 2022, likely in response not to La Niña or El Niño but continuous high abundance of anchovy. The highly variable and often unpredictable physical and biological conditions in 2022 highlight a growing recognition of disconnects between basin-scale indices and local conditions in the CCE. "July-December 2022 is the biggest outlier from individual "strong" La Niña (events) ever going back to the 50s." - Nate Mantua. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]