Posted by Sonke on January 23, 2004 at 15:50:26:
In Reply to: Re: I don't understand the short sightedness posted by ByeByeBaitfish on January 22, 2004 at 16:27:14:
I'm still here, just a little busy getting ready for the new Director.
The herring fishery is one of the most intensively managed fisheries in California. This fishery is influenced by many factors, including the fishing pressure (which is very tightly regulated) and environmental pressures. We obviously can't do anything about changes in ocean temperatures, but we can compensate with restrictions in the take by fishermen when conditions are not favorable for herring. The best available science indicates we are in one of those situations again (we have been here before), and we recommended a closure as the most risk free approach. As you can imagine, this would be a significant hardship on the herring fishermen, and they challenged the need for a complete closure. The Department recognized that there is some uncertainty in the data and provided a slightly higher risk alternative that allowed for a significantly reduced harvest. After much deliberation, the Commission went with the reduced harvest level. We are closely monitoring the fishery to see how it's fairing and will be updating the Commission.
Sonke