Making Waves in San Diego: Students' Trip to CalCOFI Conference

In late May, our policy clinic team traveled to San Diego to the 2026 CalCOFI conference. Erin, Julia, Nico, and Sam had researched marine climate resilience and relevant policies for the past year in collaboration with CalCOFI. This research established a usable conceptual framework of marine climate resilience and showed that current policies were insufficient to foster a truly climate resilient California Coast. At the conference, we were able to share our recommendations to improve policy and enhance marine climate resilience with other California ocean managers and regulators.

CalCOFI Presentations

Over two days, we listened to cutting-edge scientific presentations and discussed the intense impacts of climate change on California’s marine ecosystems. As we listened, we saw the obvious need for policy recommendations like ours growing more and more urgent. We were excited to hear presentations which directly aligned with some of our recommendations on incorporating water protections into MPAs and integrating statewide monitoring efforts.  

“My favorite talk of the conference was Jaime Jahncke’s ‘Trophic Responses to a Decade of Ocean Change: Insights from ACCESS in the Central California Current.’ I spent last summer volunteering on ACCESS [Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies] cruises in the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank sanctuaries, so seeing the data I helped collect show up in a conference presentation was incredibly meaningful. It reminded me just how much work, coordination, and support it takes to sustain these critical monitoring programs.” -Julia Jamison 

At the conference, we enjoyed presentations discussing everything from monitoring turtle populations to directly trigger management actions to analyzing zooplankton trends as the climate changes. We heard presentations on familiar topics, like species range shifts, and new topics, like changing in sea bird populations throughout climate change. Beyond presentations, we also toured the CalCOFI collections where we observed marine animal samples over a hundred years old. We also took a tour of the Scripps pier, getting behind-the-scenes looks at how sampling occurs! 

"Collection tours are always astonishing. It's mind-boggling to consider all the different forms of life occupying every corner of that space. Each creature in there is the result of billions of years of continuous branching evolution! It's what inspires me to spend my life protecting these ecosystems, so that beauty will always keep making and re-making itself." -Sam Stromberg

Our group also got into the behind-the-scenes action, helping out our client Erin S. with desk duties and poster set-ups. We all enjoyed getting to see the work that goes into such a large-scale conference, and a small portion of what Erin S. does in her career! 

“After setting up for it, I was so excited to see some of the posters! I got to pick a few out from the sign-in sheet and beelined for the kelp restoration and monitoring database projects, as they aligned with some of our recommendations! I especially enjoyed learning about the resiliency of San Diego kelp forests.” -Nico Naylor

On the last day of the conference, Julia and Nico presented their lightning talk on the group’s research. We were able to express to the audience an overview of our project’s research. This experience showed us the support California’s marine ecosystems currently have while inspiring us to continue pushing for improved policy and ocean management. 

It was a beautiful chance to see San Diego, especially for a group doing coastal work in a non-coastal city! We took the chance to explore outside of the conference, and even ran into fellow conservationists still- like the Sierra Club Seal Society! Overall, California is a state that takes pride in its vast biodiversity and beautiful ocean, so we are excited to get out there and contribute to this important field. 

Thank You!

We wanted to showcase our research for marine professionals in order to inspire protections for climate resilience and refugia. This path was opened for us by our clients, Erin Satterwaithe and Mark Gold, who were instrumental in creating and facilitating the CalCOFI 2026 Conference. We needed funding to get down to San Diego, and we were able to find aid in our mentors at CalCOFI, our EPM professor, Ryan Meyer, and through the Institute of the Environment, with the aid of Jessica Penrose.