In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Illusion of Plenty' Masking Collapse of Two Key Southern California Fisheries posted by halibug on September 27, 2011 at 09:07:29:

don't understand what the word illusion means. The paper clearly states that because the party boats know when and where the bass spawn, they can regularly target them during the Summer months. This consistent catch rate at the spawn site, where fish congregate, masks the actual health of the fishery which can also be measured by means independent of fish monitoring. The fish-catch count won't reflect the decline until the size of the biomass is sufficiently diminished, which in this case resulted in a 90 -95 percent drop in catch rate of bass over the first 10 years of the century. And yes, the data does support defining the fishery as having collapsed and overfishing is a direct cause, despite your really neat observations. Sorry but I'll take the findings of fisheries biologists from the top ocean institution in the world on this matter over your opinion everyday of the week.