State doubles size of region's marine reserves
By Mike LeeDecember 15, 2010Underwater state parks will nearly double in size across Southern California under a lightning-rod planapproved Wednesday by California’s Fish and Game Commission to boost ocean health.The strategy is less aggressive than what many conservationists wanted, but they praised it as agood start toward recovering numerous species, from lobster to sheephead. The biggest impacts will befelt by fishermen who said they will be squeezed into less-fertile waters, creating economic lossesand crowding.Read the rest of the story here.
Commission approves series of marine protected areas off California coast
By Joshua Molina CorrespondentDecember 15, 2010Wearing droopy gray sweatpants and with a chewed up toothpick dangling from his mouth, 63-year-old Ace Carter sat on a folding chair in front of the Hotel Mar Monte proudly waving a protest sign — “Stop the enviro Nazis!”A third-generation fisherman and licensed private detective, Carter arrived in front of the Santa Barbara hotel at 7 a.m. Wednesday to protest the California Fish and Game Commission’s vote on marine protected areas.“There are plenty of fish,” Carter said. “This whole thing is a sham. It’s a done deal.”About eight hours later, Carter’s fears came true.In a historic vote, the Fish and Game Commission voted 3-2 to approve a series of marine protected areas — essentially underwater parks designed to protect fish and block out fishermen.The ocean, advocates say, has become polluted and the sheer numbers of fish have diminished because of overfishing. Critics of the plan say that the health of the ocean is fine and that creating protected areas only harms people who make a living off the sea.The commission’s approval of the Integrated Preferred Alternative paves the way for the creation of more than four dozen marine protected areas over more than 300 miles, from Point Conception to Mexico along the Southern California coastline.Read more here.
State adopts network of protected marine areas
By Tony Barboza, Los Angeles TimesDecember 16, 2010Reporting from Santa Barbara - More than 350 square miles of ocean from Point Conception to the U.S.-Mexico border — about 15% of the Southern California coast — will be protected under a network of marine reserves narrowly approved by state wildlife officials.The 3-2 vote Wednesday by the California Fish and Game Commission bans or restricts fishingin 49 protected marine areas designed to replenish depleted fish populations and protect marine life.Read the rest of the story here.
Why do we keep hearing global fisheries are collapsing?
Some marine scientists say many of the world's fish stocks are nearing collapse...but the data suggest otherwise. So why is the media still reporting that we're on the verge of a fisheries apocalypse?Peter Kareiva, Cool Green Science Blog, provides insight into this question, along with an article published in Science Chronicles by world-renown scientist Ray Hilborn.Hilborn, an aquatic and fishery sciences professor at the University of Washington, writes in his article:"If you have paid any attention to the conservation literature or science journalism over the last five years, you likely have gotten the impression that our oceans are so poorly managed that they soon will be empty of fish — unless governments order drastic curtailment of current fishing practices, including the establishment of huge no-take zones across great swaths of the oceans."To be fair, there are some places where such severe declines may be true. A more balanced diagnosis, however, tells a different story — one that still requires changes in some fishing practices, but that is far from alarmist. But this balanced diagnosis is being almost wholly ignored in favor of an apocalyptic rhetoric that obscures the true issues fisheries face as well as the correct cures for those problems."Read both reports here.
Judge rules MLPA officials must release public records
photo credit: TheTruthAbout...
By Ed ZieralskiSeptember 30, 2010 at 8:56 p.m.A Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Master Plan Team for the Marine Life Protection Act South Coast Region are “state agencies” and must adhere to the California Public Records Act.Judge Patrick Marlette ruled in favor of San Diego’s Robert C. Fletcher, saying the agencies must release all requested documents related to the South Coast Region of the Marine Life Protection Act by Oct. 10.The Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Master Plan Team have been charged with drawing up proposals for enactment of the Marine Life Protection Act.Read the rest of the story at the San Diego Union-Tribune here.
Researchers Encourage Greater Sardine Consumption, But Not Tuna
Thursday, September 23, 2010, 01:30 (GMT + 9) A team of researchers from Spain and the United States are recommending a reduction in the consumption of tuna and an increase in intake of sardines, as both fish contain roughly the same nutrients. At the same time, scientists stress that consuming 100 grams of tuna will cause nearly 100 times more damage to the environment than 100 grams of sardines.This was indicated by Enric Sala, a marine ecologist at the Centre d'Estudis Avançats of the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Spain and the National Geographic Society, as well as Daniel Pauly, of the University of British Columbia in the United StatesThe experts co-directed the investigation, the results of which will be released in October in America, within an edition of the National Geographic magazine and after, in December, it will be released in the Spanish version, reports the newspaper La Vanguardia."If we preserve the marine ecosystems so that future generations can continue to eat fish as we do, we should consume less larger species such as tunas," said Sala.Read the rest of the story here.
Collaborative Sardine Research Program Concludes Aerial Summer Survey
Local Sardine Fishermen Collaborate with Scientists to Improve Knowledge of Natural Resource San Pedro, CA, Sept. 20, 2010 – San Pedro fishermen Nick Jurlin on the FV Eileen and Robert Terzoli on the FV Maria T made their final point sets –fishing for science– just hours before the summer sardine research project ended and the fall directed fishery began, at 12:01 AM September 15.Sponsored by California’s wetfish industry, the summer aerial sardine survey, whose purpose is to provide a minimum estimate of sardine abundance, documented sardine schools from Cape Flattery in Washington State to Southern California, encompassing the area around all of the Channel Islands, where sardines were plentiful. But the project was unable to conduct point sets in Monterey due to persistent fog and uncooperative fish.Despite this, the project accomplished its overall goal of conducting three replicates of the aerial survey.“Three repetitions provide enough information to establish a variance,” said Dr. Doyle Hanan, retired senior marine biologist supervisor for Department of Fish and Game, who directed field operations in California. “This will reduce uncertainty and provide a more accurate estimate of sardine abundance.”Conducted in cooperation with the Northwest sardine industry, the project covered 66 random transects in all, with 40 in California. Transects were scientifically pre-determined and flown at an altitude of 4,000 feet, extending from the coast out 35 miles, and staged at 15-mile intervals. The high-tech camera systems installed in or attached to the planes photographed the ocean surface with 60 percent overlap, providing seamless coverage. The cameras were equipped with a 24 millimeter lens, covering about a one-mile swath of ocean every 15 miles. The total area of the survey encompassed about 1,000 miles along the west coast.The survey was conducted as a two-stage project: Stage 1 consisted of aerial surveys to photograph sardine schools visible on the ocean surface along transects. Stage 2 consisted of ‘point sets’, where fishermen wrap and harvest sardine schools of various sizes, which are weighed and biological samples taken at the dock. The fishing activity also is photo-documented, and point set photos are used to correlate the volume of fish caught to the area measurement of schools identified in the aerial photos to develop a minimum estimate of absolute biomass.In all, California fishermen harvested a total of about 1,238 of the 2,100 metric tons allocated for the summer research project in California. Twenty-six point sets on schools ranging from five – 75 tons met the stringent requirements for use in the survey. Fishermen were required to capture 90-100 percent of the school, and the pilot was required to photograph the vessel approach to the targeted school as well as the capture process.The good news is the research succeeded overall. However, the forces of nature battled the project every step of the way in California. A perfect storm of problems thwarted the research project in the Monterey area. Although the fog lifted just long enough to accomplish transects, fishermen standing by to conduct point sets were stymied, first by the persistent marine layer, then by fish behavior -- as the only sardines spotted in the bay were congregated in the shallows near Santa Cruz in schools too large to conduct valid point sets. The final blow came when the owner of United Flight Services was killed along with his son in a tragic plane crash on Labor Day weekend, grounding the planes the association had chartered before the end of the research period.The first photo in this series shows FV Eileen approaching a sardine school near Santa Cruz Island. The second photo shows the process of wrapping the school. Fish were weighed and biological samples were taken at the dock. Fish were processed at Tri-Marine and State Fish Companies at cost, and the proceeds will help to fund the research. Approximately 861 metric tons remaining in the research quota at the end of the project will automatically be added to the fall directed fishing quota.The research was approved by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which issued Experimental Fishing Permits to selected vessels to participate in the harvest of sardines outside the open fishing period. The sardine industry initiated the summer sardine research in 2009 and expanded it into Southern California in 2010.
