I don’t get to post good news often, usually it’s some dire tale of oceans swept clean of fish, or someone’s prediction of when all fish will be dead…

California designated 29 marine sanctuaries today, located between Santa Barbara and San Mateo counties (the southern half of the state).

…will include  13 reserves where fishing will be prohibited and 15 conservation areas where some commercial and recreational fishing will be allowed.

State regulators will create additional preserves in subsequent years, the next set will include areas in San Mateo county to Mendocino county. These preserve areas start 3 miles offshore, so bank fisherman will largely be unaffected.

All told, 200 square miles of ocean are off now off limits. Wardens will be patrolling the new areas to ensure compliance.

Scientists say California’s marine protected areas represent a new approach to saving the world’s oceans from overfishing, and hope other states and countries follow suit.

This is an entire ecosystem placed off limits, rather than the traditional approach of protecting a single species. Scientists will be monitoring the wildlife contained in these preserves to confirm the validity of this approach.

It’s something positive, and there has been damn little of that lately.

LiveJournal Tags: marine sanctuary, fisheries management, california marine preserve, fish and game

The Census of Marine life, a multinational scientific census of the oceans commissioned to find new species, is shedding some light on migration patterns of some of our traditional gamefish.

It appears sea turtles may be in a circular orbit of the Atlantic, a life they describe as “perpetual motion,” and California Sturgeon may summer in Canadian waters.

The overall decline of ocean gamefish still dominates the news; over harvest, global warming, all are suspects in this enfolding drama.

I can’t help but assume that with the decline of ocean fisheries, a similar but less newsworthy decline must be happening on the freshwater side as well. The decline in sportfishing licenses may be masking a broader issue, that fishing is suffering regardless of locale.

I stumbled on a picture on the New South Wales blog that may be premature but may also be a glimpse of our fate.

Daily fishing licenses and beat restrictions have been common in European countries for some time.

Privately held water manicured by riverkeepers may be our destiny, as are the “angling associations” that gain the right of trespass. I recognize that the idea is repugnant to us colonials, but it has been working for some time “across the Pond.”

Technorati Tags: declining fish stocks, Ocean census, fishing

With the many reports of ocean fish stocks at impossibly low levels, and research suggesting that 90% of the big fish are gone, will the attempts at restoring these fisheries also hold for fresh water?

There are far less anglers, their numbers also are declining, but the inland fisheries are still suffering, even with catch and release management.

President Bush appears to be following the lead of Australia and Iceland in signing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act which likely will pave the way for LAPP drawings. LAPP is Limited Access Privilege Program which entitles a community, individual fisherman, or association, a predetermined share of each year’s harvest. No share means you cannot fish.

If we assume that this practice may be applied to non-commercial freshwater fisheries that become unsustainable, then it will be akin to a lottery, just like hunters have had to do for years.

Granted this is idle musings, but super-popular destinations, like Yellowstone, could have a combination of natural and man made pressures that might result in a depleted watershed, as is happening this year with their weather. Planting may not be an option if a unique species or strain is affected, and the National Park Service may even get a boost in revenue as a result.

Like the man said, these are the good old days.

It’s not something I can conciously control, I like the places I find trout as much as I like catching them. Towering pines, bald eagles, both the sights and sounds of the woods are part and parcel of the entire experience.

No, I am not an eco-terrorist, but as I hike back to the car I see my way to bring trash back with me, most of it is other folks’ the rest mine.

I was emptying my vest from Saturdays episode (see below) and tossed the usual suspects; snarl of monofilament, soggy ciger butts (mine), left over wrapper from sandwich, when the radio blared that some well intentioned fellow has just jettisoned a grand piano from the International Space Station.

On the “Mixed Message” scoreboard I would rate this an eight. While Woodsy Owl is admonishing us with, “Give a Hoot, don’t pollute” their sister agency is giggling over whether they can hit Bejing from here…. “I dunno Bob, I would lead it a like a sumbitch,  Houston out.”

I draw the line at space junk, I’ve seen Joe Dirt and unless a martian waves at me – it’s likely something I am better off not touching.

As we are on the subject of water, another interesting tidbit surfaces about a study of the effects of estrogen on Colorado trout.

Specifically, left-over birth control effluent is the root of a number of Evils, including the creation of “Metrosexual” trout.  A 123 fish sample of Boulder Creek – below Boulder’s sewage plant yielded 101 female, 12 male, and 10 “Intersex” fish – showing characteristics of both sexes.

” It’s the first thing I’ve seen as a scientist that’s really scared me..”

While the site and its links are rife with liberal bashing, it is is worth an eyeball.

Metrosexual trout – can this be the real roots of “selective trout?” Females are big, males are small, and the fish we encounter that don’t immediately eat our offering are choosy? I will test this hypothesis by tying a dozen well dressed and perfectly coifed flies – for those choosy occasions.

I saw that Davis Lake was to be poisoned again. Davis Lake had Northern Pike introduced years ago by anglers unknown, and their potential spread into the California Delta, has most fishery biologists trembling in fear.

My last couple of outings featured prominent signs warning anglers about New Zealand Mud snails , how they might be spread via wader or wading boot.  It appears as if we’re entering a new paradigm, the angler as pollination vector for foreign hosts. 

It is intimidating, what with the mosquitos carrying West Nile virus and Bird Flu, the northward march of Fire ants and Africanized bees, add in Zebra mussels, and Rock Snot, and a side arm seems necessary.

Not minimizing the issue in the slightest, this represents eco-change. Much of it will be for the worst, but what ecosystems and native California species were wiped out with the introduction of Brown Trout (1894), Kamloops Trout (1950), and (1879) Striped Bass? 

Freshwater is in short supply in most states, so applications of long lived toxic chemicals are out of the question, too many drink it, the rest farm with it. On the surface, it would suggest that once introduced, a foreign species without natural enemies can be slowed, but not eradicated.

Evolution and the process of natural selection are powerful things to tinker with – I would assume that Mother Nature will fight back by making Zebra mussels incredibly tasty to whatever is left.

In the meantime wash your waders – and remember only the cold emptiness of Space has slowed us, and that too appears temporary. Some poor Martian is enjoying  a quiet day afield, unaware that these are the Good Old Days, and fishing was really good before those damn Earthlings showed…

No sooner do we reclaim the “Most Hotdogs Ate in 12 Minutes” record, when we lose on other fronts.

Upstaged smartly by the Chinese, the world’s largest toilet facility has been unveiled in an unlikely location, Chongqing – Peoples Republic of China.

Previously, the largest toilet in the World was considered the Hudson River, or the Great Lakes – kinda depended where you were born…

Proof that the Green Movement is working, albeit ever so slow.