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Re: Re: San Nicolas island has been denuded of all kelp forests..


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Posted by Brad on October 20, 2018 at 10:30:04:

In Reply to: Re: San Nicolas island has been denuded of all kelp forests.. posted by Bluwaterdiver on October 19, 2018 at 21:41:27:

Fin-fish trapping is what the DFW calls it. It is a live fish fishery where the fish are brought in live and transported to ethnic markets and restaurants. They use big steel traps and they set the traps directly in the kelp. Kelp has a natural affinity to galvanized metal and rust so all the kelp cling to the trap. They use power winched to pull the kelp footings off the bottom every time they pull a trap. They all keep an assortment of machetes next to the winch! This scorched-earth method has been been going on for decades--In my early years i was naive as to what i was seeing--i literally watched the destruction of the massive kelp forests on the back side of Santa Barbara and the west end of San Clemente Islands.. That was the last 90's and the kelp shows no signs of coming back in either location! One silent rampage and it was effectively destroyed for a lifetime..


I contacted 3 principles at the CDFW and i got one reply--he actually denied what i witnessed happen!! After the first forest was wiped out in Dutch, i contacted him and told him what was happening! Two weeks later i saw the entire destruction! I implored him to have someone on the island take a look. He verified that there was no kelp visible, then proceeded to tell me that it was some natural 'event' or such. In other words, 2 weeks ago I somehow predicted a natural event that wiped out all the kelp for the first time in 25 years?? Seriously??

One guy did this for the cost of an annual license fee and San Nicolas Island will not recover in our lifetime! I'm making some NOISE, i welcome your angst, this can NOT be allowed to continue!



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