In Reply to: Re: Then why are the fish bigger and more numerous in no-take zones? posted by Chuck Tribolet on September 20, 2005 at 12:35:37:

I personally think reserves are a great ideal and wish there were more. I wish they would make Palos Verdes area a big reserve like Point Lobos. I wish they would sink a dozen old Navy battleships off old Marineland. To create a habitat for juvenile fish. I can wish all I want. It won't happen just because of my personal point of view.

I also questioned the 300,000 to 400,000 sea lions. I found other sites that quoted 200,000. Bottom line all these numbers are estimates. They count the seal pups and come up with a estimate. They also estimated the population increase at over 10% per year. Bottom line there is a over population of sea lions.

No one cannot point the blame at one certain special interest group about the decline of marine fish. There are many causes and methods of correcting the problem. I see it in this order, based on my opinion.

No.1 is commercial fishing.
No.2 over population of marine mammals.
No.3 sportfishing

That is the big three.

No.1 Commercial fishing has changed some. Still needs major changes. Which are very hard to implement. I would like to do away with all commercial fishing within 10 miles of the coast. My opinion that's all.

No.2 Unbalanced and over population of marine mammals - Nothing has been done at all.

No.3 Sport fishing- of the three, sport fishing has done more to preserve marine life. This is about the only area that DF&G can regulate.

How to fix the problem. Put all three under the DF&G and keep the fingers of the special interest groups out. DF&G is not perfect, but it is the best we have. I doubt DF&G's counting, but I will not complain.

I have dealt with various DF&G during work. With the counting of stripped bass in the Colorado River. With the counting of trout in many streams and lakes of the Sierras. With the counting of tree frogs in many Sierra mountain streams. Many of these problems with unbalanced wildlife was created by various DF&G state agencies.

DF&G introduced bull frogs which eat tree frogs. Now there is a concern about declining tree frog population. There were people actually crawling up and down streams trying to count tree frogs :-)

The best is DF&G's introduction of black gnats on the Colorado River. To provide food for trout that was introduced by a DF&G. Then the DF&G of that area introduced stripped bass. Which ate all the trout. So now there is a over population of gnats. So now they introduce pesticide. People are such a messed up species.