Posted by seahunt on March 16, 2005 at 06:12:00:
In Reply to: You Said He Said posted by Walt on March 15, 2005 at 20:44:47:
>Game managementin California doesn't go nearly far enough to make sure we have abundant harvests. We need closures and better understanding of breeding and species recovery - we're no where near where we need to be.
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But we are learning. There are huge areas put aside for preserves. Actually, we are very close to where we need to be. Don't take too short a view. The abalone are recovering. They are showing up off Malibu and some of the islands where they were just not seen a short while ago. There are lots of scallops. The urchin harvesters are keeping the urchins at what I think is bit low of a level. The rock fish are now protected and they have enough preserve area that they should recover well.
Otters on the other hand are forever and don't believe in preserves. The reefs can recover from humans if humans care. They cannot recover as long as otters are there.
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Look at kelp. Do you see any bite marks? It may get old and break off or a storm may carry it to shore, but it has no bite marks. Essentially, nothing eats it. Look at it. The urchins, abalone and what not eat the leaves off the bottom that break off, but there is very little that can eat kelp. It has very limited value to the reef life and in areas where there is rock reef and no kelp, the biology is very similar to an area without kelp. Kelp does very little for the reef ecology.
As another minor point consider the diving of Point Loma. While there is some good diving there, actually much of the area (around the sewer pipe is easy to find) is buried under kelp leaves like leaf litter in a land forest. It is not a place you want to dive. Otters would make a lot of areas like that.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt