Posted by mike on June 23, 2002 at 20:42:50:
In Reply to: Where would you put Marine Protected Areas? posted by John H. Moore on June 22, 2002 at 10:24:35:
It seems to me that the backside of Anacapa and perhaps, parts of the far western end would be good places to start. There is high biodiversity there and i've seen more spider crab there than just about anywhere else. The west end is full of scallops and i'd hazard a guess that the nearshore current would disperse larvae down current from a good solid breeding population of whatever is there. Also, enough newbie divers go there (North 'Capa) that it'd be kind of nice to have something for them to see other than inedible benthic critters.
Parts of San Miguel seem pretty impressive in terms of the rockfishes, lings and other stuff there. It'd probably be a good idea to set aside PARTS of that place, given the biodiversity and the upwelling and the sheer productivity of the place. Perhaps an area north of Tyler Bight? Hopefully, we'd still be able to hunt anywhere south of a closure?
I'd guess that there is little at Sta Rosa that isn't already breeding at San Mig. Perhaps Sta Rosa would be a good place to ignore ??? It's not like anyone goes to Talcott to sightsee and the rest of the island seems pretty mucky although maybe some sand dwelling species could use a reserve somewhere there?
Sta Cruz has some nice populations of some pretty big stuff. Painted Caves is a place i've seen some nice sized critters of various species and assuming that it's a good spawning area, that'd be another candidate. It's up current, and whatever hatches there would have the entire frontside of 'Cruz on south to recruit.
Farnsworth would be another candidate, if for no other reason, to minimize the anchor damage on the hydrocorals there. I've found that it's usually a waste of time to bring a speargun to Farns anyhow..nuthin i'd miss.
IF, a portion of PV is to be closed off (and everybody already knows that it's likely to be the Rocky Point area) It'd be nice to have the area South of Wash Rock open. The waters around Malaga Cove seem to host large individuals of a lot of species. If we were unable to spearfish here, the consolation prize would be that the prodictivity would likely overflow all the way downcurrent to Cabrillo Beach. I'd be waiting happily near the base of Cardiac Hill with my Riffe.