Posted by capt-ray on April 11, 2001 at 20:46:36:
In Reply to: It's Time To Be Responsible posted by Jim Hoffmann on April 11, 2001 at 08:53:41:
Jim,
Even with your vast background in Scuba instruction and retailing, I do not think you are viewing the marine enviornment with enough depth to respond responsibly. There are groups that will abuse the F&G rules consistantly. There are also groups that will exploit F&G rules to the max. Then there are the other 95% of sport divers that either do not take game or are not capable of taking game.
The purpose of F&G game management, including the artificial reef program (including the "Yukon") is to provide artificial reefs that will support game for growth and sport harvest. These reefs are supported and paid for by the license fees that we and the sport fishermen pay. They are not developed and supported by the divers that only take pictures and do not hunt, they do not pay fees to support these programs. All these things have a price and a place in nature. If the photo divers would like a "no take" area, let them finance it. I do not wish to have the fees and moneys that I have paid over the last twenty five years or so in California to protect my right to hunt a reasonable amount of game for myself and my family to be suborned by hysterical enviormentalist outcries.
The mission of the California Department of Fish and Game is to manage the resources that we have at hand. Their failure to do so would seem to me to be the result of their interpetation of their mission and the resulting impact that their lobbyists have had on the industry. (A paramount example is the F&G law that says that you must wear your fishing license on you person, above the waistline. This is primarily so they can see if you have a license from a boat they are operating without having to do some actual work and board your boat to see if you are violating some other F&G law, like over limit or something.)
The eviornmentalist community is well organised and very well financed. Once they gain a foothold in an area, you can expect that you will never be allowed to have access to that area again. Recently an aquantence of mine inquired as to when we could expect to see an abalone season in Southern California again. He was told that it would be decades, if at all.
On the subject of abalone, I have been told by the envionmentalists that the remaining population of white abalone (Haliotis Sorenseni) is about 2200 animals. I personally know of about three times that number on Catalina alone, irrespective of the other areas that I am aware of that hold breeding populations. The reason that none of us have reliquished the locations of these populations is that when we do, the enviornmentalists seem to harvest all of them for research and never return them to their natural home.
I have serious doubts that the people that purport to protect our marine enviornment are either qualified or intentioned to do so. For the most part they seem to have an agenda, usually an extremest enviornmentalist agenda that would restrict our rights to even enter an area that they deem protected. I have recorded many occasions where a State or Federal Ranger has been apparently more interested in a site that I have knowledge of for personal reasons (since the site is closed) rather that for professional reasons.
Additionally, I have personally been witness to recent daily harvests of game such as halibut by Gill-Net boats (Legally) of 50 fish per day in local waters. If I had an interest in halibut, it would take about a year to spear 50 halibut, and I am not exactly an amateur.
If the available enforcement resources out there would simple enforce existing law, I doubt seriously that we would have a problem with the local fish population.
Therefore, I would have a natural tendancy to be suspect of any proposed restrictions intended to impact divers that have paid a California State Fish and Game Fee in order to be able to engage in hunting as a sport fishing recreation.
Ray