Southwest Fisheries Science Center
The Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) is one of six fisheries research centers in NOAA's Fisheries Service. The SWFSC conducts fisheries and marine mammal research at three research laboratories and three field stations in California and two field stations in Antarctica. The Center's 250 scientists and support personnel are distributed among five research divisions and one administrative division.
The La Jolla Laboratory is the Center's headquarters and home to the Director's Office, Operations, Management, and Information Division, Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, Marine Mammal and Turtle Division and the Fisheries Resources Division. The La Jolla Laboratory is co-located on the campus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Together, these La Jolla based Divisions conduct research on Pacific and Antarctic fish, marine mammals, seabirds, marine turtles, socio-economics and marine habitats. The Fisheries Ecology Division, located with Long Marine Laboratory, UC Santa Cruz, is a state-of-the art facility for Pacific salmon and groundfish research. The Environmental Research Division in Pacific Grove emphasizes the study of environmental influences on marine resources and provides environmental information to fishery researchers and managers.
Field stations are located throughout California. In Arcata, the Cooperative Fisheries Oceanography Research Team is a partnership between the SWFSC and Humboldt State University for fisheries oceanography. Field stations at Granite Canyon and Piedras Blancas are the sites of annual monitoring of migrating gray whales. On the Antarctic Peninsula, the SWFSC’s Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division maintains two field stations for pinniped and seabird studies located at Cape Shirreff on Livingston Island and at Copacabana in Admiralty Bay on King George Island (jointly funded by the National Science Foundation/Office of Polar Programs
).