Posted by Curt Billings on March 16, 2000 at 21:09:25:
In Reply to: California Diving in the 70's - Point 3 posted by seahunt on March 16, 2000 at 13:22:55:
Outstanding. Anybody reading your posts, whether diving for decades or new to the sport has got respect the great potential for life underwater. Not as often as I like, but still occasionally you can see the examples of the plethora of creatures that were commonplace decades ago. Recently at China Point, San Clemente, while searching for a lost anchor I was amazed by the number and diversity of large and small fish that I saw. It was incredibly unusual from other spots I dove that day. The one variable, I figure, that drew all the fish was that the anchor we were looking for was from a fishing boat that had cut it loose and left. They must have been chumming with anchovies or such and this activity drew in the fish. Normally these large fish are hard to spot, because they are hiding in holes or fleeing the noise of our air bubbles. This fleeting moment was a nice swim back to my memories of the 70's, however under unnatural conditions as it was. It was however a tantalizing thought to think that the potential for a recovery to diving like the 70's still exists for many of these species. Unfortunately our tolerance for the commercial harvest of these resources prevents a change of course. It is my opinion that commercial harvest industry needs to reduce their bycatch, replenish the resource they harvest and we need to control our pollution or we will be faced with the depletion of the fisheries. At least you have memorialized the past for anybody that was to question …"Why?"