Barbary Coast Dive Club Newsletter
Page 2

Announcements & News

Nudibranchs

Sexy little critters, aren't they. Check them out at:

http://www.slugsite.tierranet.com/

 

Fish ID site

too bad you can't take the Web underwater

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/msfindx0.html

Old Ships - Nobody Loves Them Anymore

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1377/

Reminders

Upcoming Meetings

We now meet on ODD months at Round Table Pizza

November 21

December - Christmas Party
Date To Be Announced

Join the Club!

Dues are $35 and include CenCal membership

Contact our treasurer Carol Reed at seareed@barbarycoastdivers.org to join.

(For information on CenCal, see their website at http://www.cencal.org)

 

Abalone Cook-Off at Van Damme State Park
October 6-7

Win prizes! Have fun! Eat ab!

Our club has booked the Mendocino cabin for the weekend.

 

Monterey Harbor Cleanup
Saturday Sept 15

Win prizes! Do good for the environment! Eat free food! See your buddies!
There are innumerable reasons to don your gear and join the Monterey Harbor Cleanup. At the first such cleanup this year, BCD'er Peter Fong won a top-of-the-line BC.

For details, see:

http://www.cencal.org/montcleanup.html

Public Hearings for the
Nearshore Fisheries Management Plan

Do you enjoy spearfishing and/or just seeing fish? Then attend a public meeting on the proposed Nearshore Fisheries Management Plan
(scroll down for scheduled meetings)

The draft Nearshore Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) is now available for review on the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game's Web site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/nfmp

What is the Nearshore FMP? It is a plan to manage 19 nearshore finfish along California's coast. These fish include spearhunting favorites like cabezon, greenlings, sheephead, and 13 species of rockfish.

The Nearshore FMP has identified four possible alternatives:

1. No Change (Continue Current Regulations): Existing management would continue.

2. Nearshore Finfish Conservation Areas: In coordination with the Marine Life Protection Act Process (see below), fishing in at least 30 percent but not more than 50 percent of the available statewide habitat for NFMP species would be tightly restricted or prohibited in order to prevent overfishing, protect habitat, and allow depressed stocks to recover.

3. Gear Restrictions and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs): Commercial fishing would be restricted to less efficient types of fishing gear. Together with marine protected areas, these measures would help prevent overfishing, protect habitat, and allow depressed stocks to recover.

4. Preferred Alternative: This alternative combines the use of MPAs with annual limits on fishing mortality as key components for harvest control rules.

These are just summaries. Read the details on the web site given above.

What you can do:

1. Written comments are invited through Oct. 5.
Mail them to:

California Fish and Game Commission
Draft Nearshore FMP
20 Lower Ragsdale Dr.
Monterey, CA 93940
fax (831) 649-2917

or e-maile your comments to
to the Commission at NearshoreFMP@dfg.ca.gov
(don't forget to include your name)

2. Attend a public meeting
The meetings are from 7 to 10 p.m. and are as follows:

      • Sept. 6, Seaside, Seaside Oldemeyer Center, 986 Hilby Ave.
      • Sept. 19, Oakland, Elihu Harris State Office Building, 1515 Clay St.

      NOTE DATE CHANGE to Sept 19

      • Sept. 27, Eureka, Eureka Public Marina, Wharfinger Building, Great Room, 1 Marine Way.

       

OK, that is the Nearshore Fishery Management Plan. Now what the heck is the

The California Marine Life Protection Act

The Nearshore FMP (which sprang from the California Marine Life Managment Act (MLMA) of 1999) seeks to manage the fishery, while the California Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of 2000 seeks to protect marine life for both recreational and commercial purposes. They have a lot of crossover. For example, the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a feature of both Acts.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are portions of the coast that may be off-limits to commercial and/or recreational fishing. I discussed these in last month's newsletter.

The MPAs may affect your favorite spearfishing haunt or your favorite sightseeing dive spot. See which sites are affected at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mlpa/concepts.html#designations
Note that as yet, no recreational (ie, non-killing) limits have been proposed for any sites. However, the draft does refer to the possibility in future of limits on recreational hikers and divers (think Pt. Lobos).

CenCal has a good overview at http://www.cencal.org/mlpa.html
CenCal objects to the proposed locations of many of the MPAs because they are some of the few protected access points for divers on the North Coast
(for example, recreational fishing would be prohibited at MacKerricher State Park).
"We are countering with larger no-take areas at places without diver access. We are also proposing larger no-take areas at some stellar access points so that photographers and sightseerers can visit areas that are not subject to commercial and/or recreational harvesting." - Steve Campi, CenCal, scampi@dnai.com

See also DFG's website for a complete overview at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mlpa

Now you are asking,

What about abalone?

Abalone fall under the MLMA. DFG is still considering the options on reducing the take of abalone per day and per year. Get more information at:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/ab_status/ncs_ab_resource.html

What about other fish like bocaccio and lingcod?

Those are managed by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Council, which is a federally-supervised consortium between California, Oregon and Washington. It is regulated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Here is a related newsbyte:

GREATER ROCKFISH PROTECTION ORDERED: A federal judge has ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to take "bycatch" into account when setting fishing quotas for two species of Pacific rockfish says the SF Chronicle 8/23. The ruling could "slash commercial catches" of bocaccio and lingcod and could be used to "halt overfishing of the West Coast's numerous rockfish species." Since 1969 bocaccio has declined by 98% and lingcod by 85% due to "overfishing and warmer ocean waters," and conservationists have petitioned to have the bocaccio listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Yea!

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Updated: 09-03-01