This layer is intended to represent the geographic extent of NOAA Fisheries’ Rockfish Recruitment and Ecosystem Assessment Survey stations. The Rockfish Recruitment and Ecosystem Assessment Survey started in 1983 and is led by NMFS Southwest Fisheries Science Center. This survey is a long-term survey that estimates year-to-year variability in young-of-the-year (YOY) rockfish and other groundfish, as well as enumerates krill and many other forage fishes and invertebrates in the California Current. Key objectives include the development of recruitment indices of rockfish (and other groundfish) for use in stock assessments, informing oceanographic studies of groundfish recruitment processes, and supported a number of ecosystem studies, such as helping researchers understand how ecosystem shifts impact ocean biodiversity, seabird reproduction, unusual mortality events, and the rise of whale entanglements. The survey is conducted annually on a NOAA research vessel, in late Spring when most YOY groundfish are pelagic and vulnerable to the gear. Mid-water trawl sampling occurs at night, and samples not only rockfishes, but many additional species including gelatinous zooplankton, mesopelagic fishes, and forage species such as krill, market squid, anchovies, and sardines. The survey also includes conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) casts to collect environmental data, quantitative marine mammal and seabird observations, fisheries acoustics data collection, and sample collection for collaborative research activities, including eDNA, stable isotopes, and age and growth studies.