Posted by Brad on February 19, 2004 at 04:24:43:
In Reply to: YES! posted by stephen clark on February 18, 2004 at 21:30:59:
What the rec fishermen just don't get is that there are two distinct populations of fish, one resident; shallow water rockfish, sheephead, whitefish, etc, the other migratorial. Virtually every specie of SWRF are slow groth and do not travel very far in their lifetime. Obviously they will never recover if ANY fishing is allowed in the reserves.
I can't tell you how many times i have seen 5 or 6 sports pull up to the kelp at SCI and pitch their plastics, take/catch-injure-release a few fish before moving on.
They never saw eachother! They think they were the only ones who fished that area that day.
This is great news because the reserves are the ONLY tool that will prevent a total collapse of the resident species.
Thirty years ago, there used to be juvinile bacaccio around the pilings at all the piers in So Cal. Those fish are virtually extinct along the coast now, as are all of the SWRF...
Besides, the ocean is the only true wilderness left, what gives some people the right to think they can kill the wildlife in every square inch of our ocean?!