California Commercial Landing Resource Breakdown

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Local Fish

Electronic Landing and Reporting Requirements

Electronic fish ticket reporting has been mandatory since July 1, 2019. This system replaced paper landing receipts and enables more timely, accurate catch reporting.

  • All commercially caught fish must be documented using an electronic fish ticket submitted through the E-Tix system. This requirement applies even if the fish are kept for personal use. 
  • Landings must occur through a licensed fish business, unless the fisherman holds a Fisherman’s Retail License that allows them to report landings directly.
  • When fish are sold to a buyer, either the licensed fish business (buyer) or the fisherman (if authorized, such as through a Fisherman’s Retail License) is responsible for submitting the electronic fish ticket. One party must report the landing.

Landing Fees and Reporting

Fish businesses are responsible for submitting quarterly landing fee reports for fish landed during each calendar quarter. 

  • Payment is due within 30 days after the end of the quarter.
  • California landing fees are calculated per pound landed, based on species-specific rates in the Fish and Game Code. The landing fee is the rate for that species multiplied by the number of pounds landed.
  • These fees help support fisheries management, monitoring, and administration in California.
  • An example: The statutory landing fee rate for California Spiny Lobster is $0.1333 per pound (so for 100 lbs of lobster landed in California, $13.33 in landing fees is due)
  • Some species require faster reporting timelines. Certain highly migratory species, including Pacific bluefin tuna and swordfish, as well as select groundfish such as sablefish (black cod), are subject to 24-hour reporting requirements tied to landing or fishing activity. (More on this below)  These accelerated timelines support real-time management, quota tracking, and compliance, and differ from standard reporting windows for other species.

Data Transparency and Fisheries Management

Landing data collected through E-Tix supports science-based fisheries management and regulatory decision-making. 

  • Aggregated commercial landings data are publicly available through the Marine Fisheries Data Explorer, which allows users to view trends by species, region, and time period. 
  • Individual fishermen and businesses are protected through data confidentiality rules.

Why This Matters for Local Seafood

Accurate landing and reporting ensure that commercial fisheries remain transparent, compliant, and well-managed. Understanding these requirements is especially important for fishermen, seafood businesses, and local seafood organizations working to supply legally landed, traceable, and responsibly sourced seafood.

Paper landing receipts 

  • When you are fishing, you need to have two copies of landing receipts available on the boat for you to fill out; one will be for your records, and one will be for the distributor or buyer of your fish. Here is an example of the receipt. 
  • Hack! Create multiple tickets in the portal so you have ticket numbers available (on a master list) to save time, then cross off the unique e-ticket numbers as you use them.
  • You must THEN use this to submit an E-Ticket.

How to submit E-Ticket landings:

You generally have three business days to submit commercial fish landings via the CDFW E-Tix portal, but this is reduced to 24 hours for specific species like Bluefin Tuna, Sablefish, or trawled groundfish, with the clock starting from the completion of the offload.

E-Tix: https://etix.psmfc.org/Account/Login

Getting Started (Step-by-step guide): https://etix.psmfc.org/Content/Documents/ETixStartGuide_CADealers.pdf

For all questions related to electronic fish tickets or submitting landings data, contact Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) at etix@psfmc.org.

Commercial Fishing Charts: 

These charts contain the fishing blocks required on electronic fish tickets and paper landing receipts.

Southern California: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=67449&inline

Source: CDFW

California Commercial Landing Resource Breakdown