We are not the only ones who feel strongly about the allegations made by Oceana, here are some similar articles and places they are being published...
California Wetfish Producers Intervene in Lawsuit in Opposition to OceanaThe following was released by the California Wetfish Producers Association: Monterey, Calif. – Feb 22, 2012 – The California Wetfish Producers Association, a non-profit association promoting sustainable marine resources and fishing communities, announced today that it is working with a diverse group – including the City of Monterey and the Ventura Port District – to challenge a federal lawsuit by Oceana that would decimate California’s historic wetfish industry.The group filed to intervene as defendants in the ongoing case by Earthjustice, representing Oceana, against the Secretary of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service.Saving Seafood Squid and sardine fishing is no danger to species in Monterey BayThe Monterey Bay region’s healthiest fisheries are under attack by extremists. Touting studies with faulty calculations, activists have been trying to persuade federal regulators to massively curtail sardine limits, if not ban fishing outright. But the science doesn’t support their conclusions. Today’s fishery management of coastal pelagic species along the West Coast portion of the California Current Ecosystem is recognized as the most protective in the world, one of only a few areas that’s deemed sustainable by internationally recognized scientists. This is not a newly implemented strategy. The state and federal government established guidelines more than a decade ago for coastal pelagic species harvested in California and on the West Coast, maintaining at least 75 percent of the fish in the ocean to ensure a resilient core biomass for other marine species.Saving Seafood Oceana is wrong about forage fishRegarding the recent op-ed by Oceana on forage fish management, this is just more incompetent baloney. I don't know who is advising Oceana on these science questions, but it is plain that it didn't comprehend the Lenfest report. This report clearly calls out West Coast forage fish management as highly precautionary and the best in the world.Oceana's science arguments, claiming that sardines are being overfished, have been subjected to peer review and don't hold up. Oceana tried to get a forage bill through the Legislature last year, but it had so many problems it didn't pass, thank goodness. Many of us are working with the Fish and Game Commission to develop a state forage policy that has a scientific basis. Oceana wants to kill our fisheries, even when they are sustainable.Kathy Fosmark Alliance of Communities for Sustainable FisheriesMonterey County Herald Fishermen fight suit over forage limits; battle set over state's dominant fisheriesJoined by Monterey officials, California's wetfish producers are fighting a lawsuit that aims for greater protections for anchovies, sardines and squid, setting the stage for a major battle over one of the state's dominant fisheries.So-called "wetfish," also known as forage fish, live near the bottom of the food chain but make up a substantial percentage of California's commercial catch, including 97 percent of all landings in Moss Landing and Monterey. In December, environmentalists filed suit to change how the federal government manages those fisheries.Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel California is global leader in managing forage fishMore than 150 years ago, immigrant Chinese fishermen launched sampans into the chilly waters of Monterey Bay to capture squid. The Bay also lured fishermen fromSicily and other Mediterranean countries, who brought round-haul nets to fish for sardines.This was the beginning of the largest fishery in the western hemisphere – California’s famed ‘wetfish’ industry, imprinted on our collective conscience by writers like John Steinbeck.Who doesn’t remember Cannery Row?Capitol Weekly, North County Times What Makes A Fishery "Viable"?To no one's surprise, environmentalists and industry lobbyists are butting heads in a major legal wrangle over California's "wetfish"--sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and market squid. As you may recall, the pretty little market squid is the state's single biggest fishery:And it's not just humans who like to eat them--they're a major food source for sea lions, seals, seabirds, sharks, etc. According to the Mercury News, Oceana is now suing to "force the federal government to consider impacts on the broader marine ecosystem when setting limits." If Oceana wins, then when the Feds decide how many squid fishermen can catch, they would have to factor in the needs of all the other animals that like to eat squid.Science 2.0
D.B. Pleschner: Oceana claims controversy but knowledgeable; scientists disagree
D.B. Pleschner The anti-fishing group Oceana is up to mischief again.Members claim that when the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted last week to allow sardine fishing to continue in 2013, based on recommendations of their Scientific and Statistical Committee -- a group of knowledgeable scientists who review all council actions to achieve best available science -- a debate erupted (spurred largely by Oceana) about whether the sardine resource is in a state of collapse similar to what happened in the 1940s "Cannery Row" era.But as usual, Oceana is attempting to obfuscate the truth to achieve its agenda of shutting down fishing.The fact is there was no controversy among expert fisheries biologists over the setting of the 2013 sardine harvest limit, and the resource is not about to collapse. The controversy stemmed from the problem that the acoustic survey, one of three indices used to measure sardine abundance, estimated only 13,000 metric tons in the Pacific Northwest, during the same period the fishery was catching 50,000 metric tons, in the same general area and an aerial survey estimated 900,000 metric tons.Because this was an "update" year, neither scientists nor the council had leeway to change the stock assessment, even though it likely underestimated the sardine population. In fact, scientists from around the globe have acknowledged that the West Coast sardine fishery is among the best managed in the world.That's because the management of Pacific sardines is very precautionary. We have a risk-averse formula in place that ensures when population numbers go down, the harvest also goes down. Conversely, when more sardines are available, more harvest is allowed.For example, all the indices used to measure abundance -- acoustics, daily egg production and an aerial survey conducted in the Pacific Northwest -- ticked upward (or were stable) last year, which led to a higher harvest guideline in 2012.In 2011, our sardine fisheries harvested only 5.11 percent of a very conservative stock estimate, leaving nearly 95 percent of the species for predators and ecosystem needs.Does that sound like overfishing to you?Apparently Oceana doesn't understand what actually occurred during the historic collapse of the sardine fishery in the 1940s. But for those of us who care, it's important to compare historical data with the present. This is especially important because sardine fisheries were "virtually unregulated" on the West Coast during the Cannery Row era, but since then the U.S. sardine fishery has operated under strict management rules.Consider that the sardine biomass declined from 793,000 metric tons in 1949, when sardines abandoned the Pacific Northwest, to about 3,000 metric tons in 1965, and the exploitation rate for adult sardines during most of the period was more than 50 percent — far cry from the fishery today.Because this year's stock assessment declined, Oceana claimed the sky is falling on sardines, and demanded that the harvest rate for 2013 be cut to 2 percent -- which would effectively close the fishery entirely. The Scientific and Statistical Committee and Pacific Fishery Management Council knew the truth and rejected Oceana's demands.As an author of the sardine harvest policy, Dr. Richard Parrish makes these important points about key differences between then and now:
- Sardines have not abandoned the Pacific Northwest
- Sea temperatures have not chilled to the levels seen in the late 1940s
Present harvest guidelines were designed so that the council would not have to change the harvest rate every time the stock size changed.The up-and-down flexibility in harvest guidelines, based on annual biomass estimates, is an important feature to achieve optimum yield -- which considers fisheries as well as forage.These scientific facts support the Coastal Pelagic Species Management Team, cientific and Statistical Committee and Pacific Fishery Management Council's decision that the current harvest control rules for sardine (and other CPS) are precautionary and going forward will continue to protect our marine ecosystem and fishery.We can't afford to destroy sardine and other CPS fisheries, the backbone of California's fishing economy. D.B. Pleschner is executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association, a nonprofit designed to promote sustainable wetfish resources.Santa Cruz Sentinel
National ocean policy sparks partisan fight
The wrangling threatens to overshadow a fundamental issue — the country’s patchwork approach to managing offshore waters. Twenty-seven federal agencies, representing interests as diverse as farmers and shippers, have some role in governing the oceans. Obama’s July 2010 executive order set up a National Ocean Council, based at the White House, that is designed to reconcile the competing interests of different agencies and ocean users.
Hurricane Sandy, Climate Change, and the Future of Fish
Hurricane Sandy’s terrible toll in lost lives and decimated communities is still being measured. But as we start to sort out the pieces, it’s also worth noting that the storm sent shockwaves through the mid-Atlantic region’s fishing industry. Harbors and infrastructure were pummeled and in some cases destroyed along the New York and New Jersey coastlines, and the Garden State Seafood Association has already asked Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) to formally request a federal fisheries disaster declaration.In the aftermath of the storm, the link between our changing climate and increasingly extreme weather is coming into greater focus and being called out by an increasingly large caucus. (For more on the link between climate and extreme weather events in North America, see this new column by the Center for American Progress.) New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was among the first to link Sandy’s fury to the “reality” of climate change. Bloomberg Businessweek ran a cover story under the banner headline, “It’s Global Warming, Stupid,” which called out the increasing spate of corporate voices accounting for climate change in their business models. And the magazine’s namesake, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, cited climate change as the tipping point that led to his much-ballyhooed endorsement of President Barack Obama for reelection.Click here to read the full article.
More Sharks?
Video: Beached Humboldt squid in Santa Cruz
LIVE OAK -- Sentinel reader Mark Shwartz was taking his daily walk on the beach when he discovered this beached Humboldt squid Saturday afternoon. He caught this video before returning it to the ocean and contacted his friend, professor Bill Gilly of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, who confirmed it was a Humboldt squid, Shwartz said via email. Gilly also told Shwartz that many more Humboldt squid were washing up in the Pacific Grove area.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OS7D-VgauLwStory from Santa Cruz Sentinel
State lifts advisory for Ventura County shellfish, sardines, anchovies
State officials have lifted an advisory to avoid shellfish harvested recreationally off the Ventura County coast and all sardines and anchovies caught locally because of elevated levels of domoic acid.The Aug. 20 advisory warned against eating recreationally caught mussels and clams; all anchovies and sardines caught locally, both commercially and recreationally; and internal organs of all crabs and lobsters from Ventura County.The California Department of Public Health says recent samples confirm the levels of domoic acid have declined to safe or undetectable levels. Domoic acid is a naturally occurring nerve toxin that can cause illness or death in humans, according to the agency.No cases of human poisoning from the acid are known to have occurred in California, state officials said.For additional information click here.
Silvery fish bend a law of physics
Silvery fish such as herring, sardine and sprat are "breaking" the basic physics law of reflection, according to a study from the University of Bristol published this week in Nature Photonics.
Reflective surfaces polarize light, but PhD student Tom Jordan and his supervisors Professor Julian Partridge and Dr Nicholas Roberts in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences have discovered that these silvery fish have defeated this basic law of reflection, which helps protect them from predators.Until now, it was believed that the fish's skin, which contains "multilayer" arrangements of reflective guanine crystals, would fully polarize light when reflected, thereby reducing reflectivity and making them more visible to predators.Full story here.