Issues of Concern
1. We need to protect viable fishing communities along with marine resources: Continued access to CPS resources is an ongoing issue of concern to California wetfish fishermen and processors.
2. Committing adequate resources to CPS research at both the state and federal level is essential to ensure that CPS stock assessments and harvest guidelines are developed utilizing best available science.
3. California’s wetfish industry provides substantial economic benefits to port cities and regions in which it operates, as well as to the State as a whole. Maintaining adequate infrastructure to foster, facilitate and expand operations is essential to the long-term viability of California’s wetfish industry.
4. The cost of doing business in California is increasing, caused in large part by the regulatory burden from a growing list of environmental initiatives (e.g. clean water, clean air, precautionary fishery management etc.) Despite these costs, California’s wetfish industry must compete in a global marketplace.
5. Coastal pelagic species {CPS} such as sardines are “transboundary” stocks that migrate from Mexico to Canada during their peak periods of abundance. The California CPS fishery is strictly managed under conservative harvest guidelines based on the population estimated in US waters minus the biomass estimated to exist south of the border. However, currently no such consideration or cooperation is reciprocated by Mexico. We must protect US fishermen in instances of shared marine resources.
Read more here.
Date: August 6, 2010