3. Port Governance and Infrastructure

Monterey Harbor is located in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest marine sanctuary in the United States, was established in 1992 and covers a shoreline length of 276 miles and 6,094 square miles of ocean (Source). The Harbormaster reports to the City Council. The Monterey Municipal Marina is a full-service facility with 500 boat berths. Fisherman’s Wharf (Municipal Wharf I) was once used by the sardine industry but today is a tourist destination with restaurants, fish markets, gift shops, and charter operations for sportfishing, whale watching, and sightseeing (Source).

Municipal Wharf II is oriented to the commercial fishing industry. Facilities include wholesale fish companies, a commercial abalone farm, restrooms, snack bar, restaurants, a boat hoist and the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club. Commercial dive charters depart from Wharf II. Adjacent to Wharf II is a 700-foot public fishing pier where no fishing license is required (Source). The City of Monterey charges wharfage fees on a sliding scale based on the value of fish and other ocean products that pass over the wharf for sale. The city supports the commercial fleet through numerous policies for berthing and fees that contribute to the infrastructure found largely on Wharf II.

Additional facilities include permitted mooring buoys located in the outer harbor which can accommodate commercial vessels up to 100 feet. There is also an open anchorage at Del Monte Beach. Breakwater Cove Marina is a private marina and boatyard with a fuel dock, travel lift and chandlery. Between the marinas and wharf facilities in the port there is a fish cleaning station, fuel dock, two haul outs, five hoists, an ice facility, and shower and laundry services. Monterey is also home to a Coast Guard wharf. Located near the Breakwater Cove Marina and the Coast Guard Wharf is a modern launch ramp (Source).

In the early 2010s, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded Monterey and Morro Bay a grant to develop Community Sustainability Plans. The plans, cited in the Magnuson Stevens Act, are intended to help fishing communities avoid the negative impacts of catch share programs (Source).

3.1 Commercial Seafood Handling Infrastructure

A variety of commercial fish businesses receive, and in some cases, process the catch landed at the Monterey Harbor by commercial fishers (Table 1). These include businesses that lease and operate the fish receiving stations located on Municipal Wharf II, other local and non-local businesses that receive the unloaded catch from these receiving station operators and some fishers who handle their own (and in some cases others’) catch. In 2021, 29 fish businesses landed catch at the port and 20 fish business licensees had a mail, street, or plant address of Monterey (Table 1). Those based in Monterey included commercial fishers licensed to receive and sell their catch, and several smaller locally owned receivers that also had retail storefronts and/or restaurants.

Note: Excludes Fish Importer and Fish Wholesaler licenses. Some businesses hold more than one license. If multiple licenses of a single type were issued to an individual that type was only counted once.

Like most ports along the California coast, commercial fish businesses in Monterey have slowly declined since 2002 (38), with 20 businesses in 2021 (Figure 2). The contraction of the processing sector is in large part due to the 2000 groundfish disaster and subsequent 2003 coastwide federal trawl buyback program (Table 2). With the decline in the year-round, high-volume groundfish fishery and increased dependence on the seasonal market squid and spot prawn fisheries, receiving and processing businesses struggled. The coastal pelagic and market squid fisheries, important fisheries for the port, also saw declines in harvest in the mid-2000s. As a relative proportion, the port has lost more fish receiver and fish processor licenses than multifunction fish business licenses (defined in the table above) since the early 2000s. This trend reflects a shift towards vertical integration––the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies––which accompanied the dominance of large firms in the seafood sector. Fishermen’s retail licenses dropped from a peak of 15 in 2003 to just 6 in 2021 (Figure 2). Within that time frame, the number of licenses varied from year to year, likely bolstered in some years by the expansion of the spot prawn fishery which some fishers direct market. The loss in fishermen’s retail licenses loss mirrors an overall reduction in fishing licenses affiliated with the port (discussed in section 4.2.1).

Table 2: Timeline of selected events affecting Monterey’s primary fisheries.