Monterey Bay’s fishing industry is changing: Here’s what Santa Cruz fishers are catching now
September 29, 2026, By Lily Belli, Lookout Santa Cruz
The nonprofit Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust produced the Monterey Bay Commercial Fisheries: Status and Trends Report with help from researchers at UC Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station. It looked at data on fishing activity from 1981 to 2024, with a detailed focus on the past 14 years, and released the findings earlier this month.
The report outlines substantial changes to fishing strategies and types of fisheries, and a huge decline in the number of vessels throughout Monterey Bay. It notes that each port could make specific improvements to its infrastructure to support the industry, from installing public ice machines and access to cold storage to establishing regular onsite seafood markets.