Executive Summary

Main Takeaways

• Two programs, one complementary picture. SCCWRP and CalCOFI together span the full Southern California Bight — SCCWRP's inshore and benthic coverage through the Bight Program, and CalCOFI's offshore time series and quarterly cruises — but the two have yet to systematically combine their data. Merging datasets could answer regional-scale questions neither program can address independently.
• The collaboration is well-timed given state policy priorities. Ocean acidification, the 30x30 biodiversity mandate, rapid response, and microplastics are all active state priorities, and California still lacks a coordinated ocean monitoring program. With over 100 siloed monitoring programs statewide, the SCCWRP–CalCOFI partnership offers a practical path toward integrated, policy-relevant regional science — with joint proposals as the near-term mechanism for turning momentum into funded, durable work.
• Rapid response: the data and experience exist, but a formal plan is still needed. Both programs hold relevant datasets and prior coordination experience, but no formal trigger protocol exists for acute events (wildfires, oil spills, floods) or slower-moving crises like harmful algal blooms. Defining a clear activation threshold, in coordination with SCCOOS, was identified as an achievable near-term step.
• Ocean acidification & hypoxia: chemistry and biology need to be measured together. The biggest opportunity lies between continuous chemical monitoring and episodic biological sampling. The group's central priority was establishing sentinel sites pairing fixed-platform chemistry (moorings, shore stations) with ship-based eDNA and organismal observations, glider surveys, and ROMS-BEC model validation.
• eDNA: method standardization will enable comparison. The two programs are closely aligned in approach but use different filter types and protocols, leaving taxonomic gaps in the middle of the trophic spectrum. A ~$50K method optimization study comparing pore sizes and analytical approaches would clarify coverage gaps and inform a shared framework.
• Microplastics: combining methods and archives reveals a more holistic picture. SCCWRP brings large-scale benthic monitoring and high-confidence analytical methods; CalCOFI brings surface-water manta tows and a substantial sample archive. Intercalibrating methods and applying them to CalCOFI's archive could unlock long-term trend data neither program can yet provide alone.

Action Items

Near-Term

• Overlay SCCWRP and CalCOFI sampling footprints to identify spatial overlap and gaps across all four focal areas (eDNA, OAH, microplastics, rapid response).
• Inventory existing sample backlogs (especially archived CalCOFI manta trawl and eDNA samples), documenting collection methods and stations.
• Begin exchanging samples between programs and initiate joint writing on shared datasets, including pulling CalCOFI data to validate SCCWRP's ROMS-BEC model output.
• Conduct a ~$50K eDNA method optimization study comparing pore sizes and depths (ddPCR + metabarcoding) to identify taxonomic gaps across both programs.
• Conduct a historical reanalysis of CalCOFI and Bight biological/chemical observations alongside ROMS-BEC output, focused on cross-shore OAH gradients.
• Match SCCWRP benthic trawl data with CalCOFI larval fish records to link inshore recruitment to offshore spawning biomass.

Medium-Term

• Develop and submit joint proposals.
• Pursue targeted eDNA species assay development (krill, pteropods, squid, sharks, lobster phyllosoma; est. $250–500K).
• Define a formal emergency response trigger protocol for a coordinated CalCOFI–SCCWRP–SCCOOS response plan (wildfires, oil spills, HABs).
• Intercalibrate microplastics methods between SCCWRP and the Deheyn Lab (SIO), applying them to CalCOFI's archived manta trawl samples.

Longer-Term

• Establish integrated sentinel monitoring sites combining continuous chemical measurements with periodic biological sampling and glider surveys.
• Establish a long-term shared sample repository (ideally at SIO) archiving eDNA filters and extracted DNA statewide.
• Pursue a $5M, 5–10 year integrated biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics assessment (beginning with a 0–3 year baseline), plus a ~$1M quantitative fish community assessment.

Ongoing

• Reconvene in approximately six months (adding taxonomic and glider representatives) to assess progress and advance joint proposals.
• Continue engagement with legislative staff and decision-makers; identify three to five high-impact state priorities for philanthropic and federal funding.

Overview

SCCWRP and CalCOFI share a long history of partnership in the Southern California Bight and increasingly overlapping interests in monitoring, sampling, and emerging tools. The workshop brought together 27 SCCWRP- and CalCOFI-affiliated scientists and staff to (1) build and strengthen relationships between the programs and (2) identify areas of alignment and focused collaboration — environmental DNA (eDNA), ocean acidification & hypoxia (OAH), rapid response monitoring, and microplastics. The day combined presentations, breakout groups, and discussion sessions.

Introduction

Steve Weisberg (SCCWRP Director) opened the meeting as a working session for initial conversations, framing SCCWRP and CalCOFI as complementary organizations with shared interests in water quality, biodiversity, and climate impacts. One example raised: combining SCCWRP's inshore and CalCOFI's offshore oxygen data could give a more holistic picture of oxygen conditions across the Bight.

Mark Gold (CalCOFI Director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) situated the collaboration within state policy priorities — ocean acidification and hypoxia, 30x30 biodiversity monitoring, rapid response to events like the LA wildfires and HABs, and microplastics — and noted that California's 100+ siloed monitoring programs represent both a challenge and an opportunity.

Discussions were organized around four focal areas — OAH, eDNA, rapid response, and microplastics — to identify concrete collaboration opportunities and lay groundwork for joint proposals.

SCCWRP & CalCOFI: Overviews & Partnership

Overview of CalCOFI — Noelle Bowlin, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center

CalCOFI is a multi-institution program with a sampling footprint from Baja California to the Oregon–California border, originating from landing tax revenue that funded one of the longest-running marine monitoring efforts in the world. Quarterly cruises (winter/spring extend into a broader domain to capture sardine/anchovy spawning range; summer/fall focus on the core area) have sampled the same grid for over 40 years, with nearshore stations maintained for the past 21 years.

On OAH: dissolved inorganic carbon samples have been collected since 1983 (with a 2001–2008 gap), plus underway pH/pCO2 sampling and six years of CTD-mounted pH sensors. A backlog of unprocessed samples remains an active challenge.

CalCOFI's eDNA efforts include the NOAA Ocean Genomics program (NCOG, bacteria/phytoplankton since 2014), underway large-volume fish/marine-mammal eDNA sampling (since 2023), and analysis of ethanol-preserved bongo net samples dating to the late 1990s (since 2024).

Emergent issues include resurfaced DDT contamination in vertically migrating forage fish (first documented 1972), Palisades Fire (Jan 2025) response sampling and mesocosm experiments, microplastics work since the early 2000s, and food-chain questions raised by the recent anchovy boom.

Priorities ahead: processing a 12–15 year manta trawl backlog, improving data management, and expanding glider-based sampling (a shadowgraph-camera glider was deployed alongside the spring 2026 cruise).

Overview of SCCWRP — Ken Schiff, SCCWRP Deputy Director

SCCWRP facilitates regional monitoring across oceans, streams, beaches, stormwater, and marine protected areas, currently supporting 14–15 active regional programs. Its flagship effort, the Bight Program (launched 1994, five-year cycles), is a national model for coordinated regional monitoring: rather than one agency answering regional questions alone, SCCWRP brings together over 100 monitoring agencies — industry, local government, consultants, academics, nonprofits — each contributing sites or measurements. Agencies may substitute Bight participation for some routine local discharge monitoring requirements. Participation has grown from SCCWRP alone in the 1970s to roughly 150 entities as of the 2023 cycle.

Three examples of management impact: beach water quality data showed Southern California beaches meet water quality objectives 97% of the time in dry weather but deteriorate sharply after rainfall, shaping the Clean Beach Initiative and the beach-mile-days framework; sediment quality objectives and trash/microplastics monitoring have similarly informed impaired-waters listings/delistings and state policy.

The current Bight '23 cycle covers eight elements: sediment quality, trash and microplastics, water quality, ocean acidification and hypoxia, estuaries, harmful algal blooms, and bioaccumulation.

Topic Areas: Rapid Response, OAH, eDNA, Microplastics

Rapid Response — Alvina Mehinto (SCCWRP) & Rasmus Swalethorp (CalCOFI)

The group addressed both acute events (wildfires, oil spills, floods) and slower-moving crises (harmful algal blooms), building on nearly 15 years of prior CalCOFI–SCCWRP–SCCOOS coordination. Three near-term collaboration areas emerged: quantifying pollutant loading from runoff vs. atmospheric deposition; combining historical fish larvae and trawl data to track recruitment dynamics (e.g., sand dab, sole, turbot, vermillion rockfish); and standardizing surface microlayer sampling, which concentrates pollutants and matters ecologically for fish larvae.

Longer-term ideas included matching water samples with sediment/black carbon data, aligning Santa Ana wind records with fire events, emergency deployment of a floating Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) for fire-impact assessment, and adding manta trawls to both programs for a shared microplastics/fish baseline. The group agreed on the need for a formal benchmark to trigger a rapid response action plan.

Ocean Acidification & Hypoxia (OAH) — Martha Sutula & Christina Frieder (SCCWRP), Anya Stajner (CalCOFI)

A central theme was the mismatch between near-continuous physical/chemical mooring and glider data and episodic, ship-based chemical and biological sampling. The group explored sentinel sites pairing mooring-based high-frequency data with periodic ship-based eDNA and organismal sampling, and identified gliders as key to bridging cross-shore gaps — Lines 80 and 90 were flagged as priority locations given existing mooring, pier, and glider assets. About 11 locations show a detectable climate trend based on existing data.

Discussion also covered updating the Alin et al. carbonate-chemistry algorithm (via the ESPER model), candidate indicator taxa (euphausiids, crustaceans, holoplanktonic gastropods), and shell-dissolution methodology comparisons (SEM vs. micro-CT).

Three priorities: (1) a historical reanalysis of CalCOFI and Bight data with ROMS-BEC output (est. $500K+ on the CalCOFI side); (2) methodology improvements and new indicator species; and (3) developing coupled chemical/biological sampling tied to existing mooring infrastructure, with increased monitoring in late summer and areas of peak habitat compression.

eDNA — Susie Theroux (SCCWRP) & Nastassia Patin (CalCOFI)

The two programs are closely aligned in approach with clear opportunity for standardization. CalCOFI's eDNA spans NCOG (CTD-based, 0.22 micron Sterivex filters, mainly microbes), MOSAIC (surface vertebrate eDNA via 5 micron underway filters since 2023), and ethanol-preserved bongo tows since 1996 — giving strong coverage at the microbial and cetacean ends of the trophic spectrum but a gap in the middle. SCCWRP's Bight eDNA sampling (since late 2024) uses 0.45 micron PES filters via vacuum pump, with plankton tow samples preserved for molecular analysis since 2018.

Near-term actions: a ~$50K method optimization study (pore sizes, depths, ddPCR + metabarcoding) and targeted species assay development ($250–500K) for taxa like krill, pteropods, squid, sharks, and lobster phyllosoma. Longer-term goals include a ~$5M integrated biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics assessment, a ~$1M quantitative fish community assessment, and RNA-based life-stage identification research.

Microplastics — Leah Thornton Hampton (SCCWRP) & Dimitri Deheyn (SIO-UCSD)

CalCOFI does not currently conduct microplastics monitoring. SCCWRP's Bight program is running a special study on microplastics in sediment and mussels, using high-confidence but laborious methods limited to particles ≥125 μm. The Deheyn Lab at SIO is developing faster, cheaper methods for smaller particle sizes — creating an opportunity for method intercalibration. Applying methods to CalCOFI's archived manta trawl samples could unlock long-term trend data the Bight's single-year snapshot cannot yet provide.

Near-term priorities: inventorying sample backlogs and developing a detailed spatial overlap map of CalCOFI and SCCWRP stations, an approach that could extend to larval fish and benthic trawl datasets.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Steve Weisberg reflected on success at different timescales: in the near term, whether people have built relationships and feel comfortable reaching out directly. Immediate next steps already in motion include joint paper writing, sample exchange, and using CalCOFI data to validate SCCWRP's ROMS-BEC model output. Medium-term success means joint proposal writing (with the OPC OAH call flagged as a near-term funding opportunity) and follow-up meetings; longer-term success means 5-year plans and joint proposals actually materializing.

Outstanding items include overlaying sampling footprints, matching SCCWRP benthic trawl data with CalCOFI larval fish data, exploring comparability between SCCWRP discharger monitoring and CalCOFI at shared stations, examining marine heat wave responses across both datasets, and archiving SCCWRP eDNA/genetic samples. The group also emphasized continued engagement with legislative staff and identifying three to five high-impact state priorities to pursue with philanthropic and federal funding.

Suggested Citation

Satterthwaite, E.V., Gold, M., Weisberg, S., Schiff, K., & workshop participants. 2026. Bridging ocean observing across the SoCal Bight: Workshop report. SCCWRP & CalCOFI Workshop, Costa Mesa, CA.