An extremely disappointing Channel Islands weekend

[drbill]

Although I have nothing against those who spear, I prefer not to be on boats where they are a significant part of the passengers. Interesting that you would find so little life up there. I am always fascinated by what I see in the northern Channel Islands, even in areas where there are urchin barrens. Of course the spearos have probably helped contribute to the development of these barrens by removing the predators that feed on urchins such as larger sheephead.

A three day trip that stuck almost entirely to the north side of Santa Cruz Island doesn't sound like a Channel Islands trip unless the weather prohibited moving further west or south. I'm surprised if that is the case since the Truth Aquatics boats have always been among my favorites when I can afford to do dives up there.

 

[TSandM]

It was my experience, on my first trip to the Channel Islands, that the sites which are marine preserves are very different from the sites which are open to fishing. I agree with you; the fishing spots are pretty decimated and uninteresting to dive. Maybe the trick is to try to sign up for boats which aren't full of spearfishermen?

 

[Sam Miller III]

Do spearfishermen harvest more fish than pole fishermen? Does any one know the answer?

I recall seeing pole fishermen with huge bags full of fish...I have never seen a spear fisherman come off a boat with bags of fish..I do recall limits of Lobster and Scallops...

sdm

 

[TSandM]

If you read my post as meaning that the spearfishermen are responsible for the conditions, that's not what I intended. What I meant was that charters with spearfishermen on them have to go to the places where fishing is permitted, and those are the places with urchin barrens. I have no idea whether the spearos or the pole fishermen are more responsible for the conditions -- I would suspect the latter, as I would guess their numbers are far higher.

 

[iggy23]

I'm a avid Spearo and I couldn't agree with Sam Miller more. I my experience Spearfishermen take a select few legal fish after carefully considering the species and regulations/size limits regarding that species. I have yet to see Spearos In Malibu or Ventura who go out just killing everything, we usually hunt for a specific species when we dive. We also study the fish we hunt and try to learn everything about the species. As for the barren Sea Urchin reefs, why not start taking some home each dive and making Uni. I do and it's fabulous.

I hope you have a better trip next time...maybe try to book a trip to San Clemente Island

 

[Jak Crow]

During the planning of the trip, there was no talk of spear fishing, and I had never done one of the live aboard trips, so I didn't know what to expect. There had originally been talk of starting at the Anacapa sea lion colony and then going to San Miguel. However, when we arrived at the islands Friday morning, we were at the east end of Santa Cruz. The entire weekend was spent just moving west with no talk of visiting any protected areas and no attempt to go to another island. The trip was not full of spear fishermen. In fact, there were more non-spearfishers than spearfishers, but almost all the locations were accommodating the spearfishers and scallop collectors.

It was calm in the mornings, with varying degrees of windy in the afternoon. It was calm Friday evening into the night and a bit windy Saturday evening calming later that night. The wind seemed to be blowing toward the SW most of the weekend, and there was no attempt to move to the south side of the island. The Truth had apparently spent most of the weekend there. Our night dives were cancelled. Viz was lousy at almost every site. There was almost no kelp to speak of.

On the drive back home Sunday night, my friend and I couldn't help but feel a little angry.

 

[merxlin]

Was this an open boat, or a charter by a shop? Did you ask the captain about the sites or was there any discussion the night before about where you were going the next day?

 

[Jak Crow]

1/2 shop, 1/2 Truth. I said there had originally been talk of Anacapa and Miguel, but I don't know why that didn't happen. By the middle of the 2nd day a number of non-fishing divers were getting frustrated with the lousy diving and told the crew and captain, but nothing came of it.

 

[sffrenchman]

Funny that you say that. I was on a channel island trip last year and what surprised by the lack of large fish. Lots of life but almost no large fish. When I finally saw a large sheepshead, it ended up on someone's spear! My feeling is that when there are so few fish to spear on a dive, may be spearos should reconsider whether it is worth spearing.

 

[fnfalman]

It's just all depends on where the dive sites are. Some dive sites at Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa are utterly infested with sea urchins and the reefs are very barren. They're cool for about two dives and then gets boring quick.

Since that I'm not a hunter, I generally try to scout out whether a trip is a hunting trip or not. If not, then I'd tend to go, if it's a hunting trip then I'd have to weigh between the coolness of the destination (San Miguel, San Nicholas, Santa Barbara) and the risk of diving at barren sites.

Apropos of nothing, most of the northern Channel Island trips I've been on this year had been rather sucky. I finally saw some good kelps off Santa Rosa a few weeks back.