DFG MAY PUT SPORT ANGLERS ON THE HOOK
TOM STIENSTRA
EXAMINER OUTDOORS COLUMNIST
Sept. 12, 1999
WHAT IF you went to a doctor about a headache,
and to your surprise, the doctor ordered more
studies. Then, the next day, you woke up and found
that your right arm had been amputated?
Makes no sense, right?
That is exactly what the fish doctor is proposing in
California.
While rockfish and lingcod populations are under
siege from overfishing by commercial netters and
longliners, the Department of Fish and Game is
proposing that the sport limit be dropped from 15
to 10, and the limit perhaps to zero for lingcod and
bocaccio.
According to one insider with the DFG, the
proposal may be changed in the next month to
reduce the rockfish limit for sport anglers to as low
as four.
It's like cutting off your arm because you have a
headache.
The headache is the overfishing by the commercial
fleet, comprised of longliners that use fishing lines
miles long with 5,000 to 6,000 hooks, and drag
boats that tow giant nets like vacuum cleaners
through the fishing grounds. They not only dominate
the coastal fishery, but with their sole mission to turn
fish into cash, are out to kill every fish they can get
their mitts on.
The right arm is the sport fishing public, whose
desire is to maintain abundant, healthy fisheries, and
who pay for resource management through license
and tag fees, as well as special taxes on equipment.
They wish never to harm a fishery, but like a
lucrative bank account, to take only the interest and
never cut into the capital.
But the draggers and longliners are breaking the
bank.
According to one report, 87 percent of the coastal
rockfish catch is taken commercially, 13 percent by
sport anglers. According to another, a single
commercial boat with a drag net catches more
bocaccio than the entire sport fleet in California. In
another, longliners hook and kill unbelievable
thousands of juvenile fish, that is, fish that never
have a chance to spawn.
Yet the science is not available to document the
status of rockfish on the California coast. According
to the Monterey office of the DFG, of 50 rockfish
species in the ocean, 43 are listed as "Status
Unknown," which means that not a single federal or
state scientist has a clue what's going on out there.
The first rule of wildlife management is to have a
species census, from which you can track
population gains and declines, and identify limiting
factors.
So where is this proposal coming from?
It's coming from Oregon. The Pacific Fisheries
Management Council is using data from Oregon for
lingcod and bocaccio as a model for rockfish on the
California coast. From that model, they have
determined the rockfish limits for sport anglers need
to be drastically cut in California.
That's how the fish doctor has done it. Can you
imagine any other doctor working like this?
As word has circulated about this proposal, the
DFG has just started getting hammered for it. So
much so that a special meeting has just been
scheduled by the Fish and Game Commission for
Oct. 20 in Sacramento, to allow public comment
and review of the entire proposal. In addition, by
then the latest data from Oregon is supposed to be
available. Like, wow.
To provide your comment to the Fish and Game
Commission, send an e-mail to rtreanor@dfg.ca.gov
or write Fish & Game Commission, Room 1320,
1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, CA 95814.