We have a bunch here on the Sonoma coast and North, along with a bunch around Monterey. They do not stop fishing at all. It gives the scientists a nice place to run base fish counts off of. There are thousands of places a fisherman can go to enjoy fishing.
This is simply not true. The goal of the MLPAs, at least from Santa Barbara on north, has been to reduce rockfishing, which is habitat-localized, unlike pelagic species like salmon . The DF&G website has maps that show the hard bottom habitat for the Central and North Central regions (Santa Barbara to Pt. Arena - they may also be there for the other regions, I haven't looked) - if you look at the resulting SMAs (no fishing zones, everything else allowed) and SMCAs (no rockfishing, some salmon fishing, everything else allowed), you can see that with exception of one or two 'bones' thrown to the fishermen in the handful of most heavily accessed areas, ALL the prime hardbottom habitat was put off limits. Fishing access for rockfish has been profoundly restricted, and made more dangerous from every port.
. There are groups out there like Reef Check that are bringing scientific data to the plate that is unbiased and over many years will show the true trends of our ecosystems underwater.
This is an appealing thought, but fantasy. No scrape-the-surface survey is remotely unbiased, and the idea that 'true' trends will be revealed by this approach, or that closing off half the rockfish habitat to fishing is somehow a pre-requisite for good analysis of the fisheries is without foundation.
They need to be supported by all sides, and the results should be used by all sides to find a sustainable future for all species.
I think all will agree to this. From what I see, the record shows the job was being more than adequately done before the rogue MLPA effort was implemented. NOAA and many fisheries scientists seem to say so.
I don't care if someone spear fishes, as long as they are not taking species that are rare. Heck take all the Blue's, within reason, you want out of our local waters. Now Vermillion are a different story as they are not common at all.
More FUD - there are no open seasons for any rare fish. There are many common fish (canary, yelloweye) for which there are also no open season. Vermillion are quite a common fish, not at all like blues, but still common enough. Rockfish season just opened south of Pigeon Point. For many of the boats reporting, vermillion was the fish they caught the most of.
The pollution issue is one of the largest issues the earth is facing and unless we get together as an entire society will help lead to the human races demise. Unfortunately I do not see it happening soon enough. Who here is willing to quite using plastic bags, and cut their fossil fuel use by 60% this year? FWIW I did so a few years ago. Since no one is willing to make the changes on their own regulations must be put in place to force the changes.
The MLPA act was a political spawn - it wasn't requested by fisheries managers, there wasn't any data to say it was needed - it didn't even ask about that - and none of it was integrated into existing fisheries management... the same management that had already made the California fisheries the least-exploited in the world, according to a recently published peer-reviewed study by academic fisheries scientists. The MLPA act was intended to set up a limited exercise in adaptive management, to learn about MPAs. Instead, with the influence of private money and back-room corruption, it was implemented at large scale as a wholesale permananent ban on fishing, with no ability and scant indication of intention to fulfill the actual mandates of the Act. They're being sued for that, or will be.
You can be happy that the process has resulted in the kind of MPAs we now have, many are. No doubt, conditions will change within those areas (what happens outside them remains to be seen). This was ideologically driven - you can't claim that there was a compelling reason for them. With scant, highly localized exception, they don't solve anything that was actually a problem over the vast majority of the waters they encompass. In return for that emotional and symbolic victory, the traditional pastime and livelihood of many innocent and only modestly privileged people has been impaired. The commercial fishermen will still get their fish - this wasn't so much their kind of fishing, the party boats will still get their fish - at lower profit but they can go the extra mile, some of the rec guys with the bigger, faster boats will still see to it that they get their fish, spending more and burning more fuel - it's the retired guy whose boat isn't fit to travel 20 miles, and the young guy with kids who doesn't have the budget for the boat and distance and additional trips, who have been most impaired.
Rant off.
He then went on to ask why the EcoTrust economic study stopped at the dock and how are the Commissioners supposed to make decisions without all the information.
based on the merits of our original case against the BRTF and MPT,” added Elm.
