Posted by seahunt on February 19, 2004 at 14:59:58:
In Reply to: Re: Mr. Sonke if you please.... posted by Sonke on February 19, 2004 at 13:19:20:
Things certainly are better than they were and I am thrilled that the Reserves will go forward. They are ambitious and may be enough.
With the evidence available about the great records of fish preserves benefitting the fishers and the immediate obvious decline in local fisheries, you would think that the fishers would support the reserves... Against stupidity, the Gods themselves contend in vain.
I have to ask you though how you can say that the squid limit seems reasonable. Please correct any mistakes I make. The current limit is 180,000 tons. The highest ever take was 150,000 tons. The projected take this year is likely to be under 50,000 tons. It seems that with a yearly limit higher than has ever been taken in a year, there is effectively no limit on take. Am I wrong on any of this or on the likely importance of squid to the local food chain?
As for your saying my general assessment of the success of fisheries management is not very accurate, could you please support that. Lobster are hanging in there, but they seem unique. I don't know about the condition of urchin and halibut fisheries, but they seem to be hanging in there. Salmon, white seabass and great black seabass are being husbanded by draconian measures. Still, just naming the destruction of abalone and rockfish fisheries would seem to describe the near complete destruction of two of the most important private and commercial fisheries that used to be so vast. Add to that the condition of tuna, yellowtail, bonita and some other populations. The sculpin and calicos are there, but the sheepheads are for practical purposes gone. Now that is just going on my experience. I used to take rockfish, lingcod, bonita and mackeral which were abundant 20 years ago. I no longer fish for them, because they are basically gone. Add to that the history of California fisheries as told by Ed Ries and other fishing historians and it seems that California waters are wastelands compared to what they were.
Thanks, seahunt