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In This Issue...
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Fishing for the Future
Scientists Believe the Sea is in Crisis But New Fishing Bans Will Restore Habitats Quickly
By Judith Wellner
Almost a third of seafood species worldwide have collapsed and harvest of those species has declined by at least 90 percent. The rest are set to collapse by the middle of this century if current trends continue, according to a new report in last month’s issue of the journal Science.
“The fishing industry is in trouble in California,” said Mike Sutton, Director for the Future of the Oceans Center at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
How bad is bad and what federal regulators are doing to fix the problem has commercial fishermen anxiously waiting for more news.
Few Fish Left in a Big Pond
This year’s salmon season left fishermen with losses and consumers with skyrocketing prices.
The season didn’t open until the month of May because of strikingly low fish counts on the Klamath River. And it was closed for most of July. Even when the season opened up again, commercial anglers were restricted to just 75 fish per week.
Normally they can haul in up to several hundred fish in that time.
“Many people went to Oregon, [and] worked on tuna boats,” said Mark Stiller, president of the Santa Cruz Commercial Fisherman’s Association. “But the market wasn’t very good. There’s a lot of product in frozen storage, mostly coming from Spain.”
Santa Cruz-based commercial fisherman Wilson Quick is one of the many who decided to try his luck in Oregon.
“It was one of the best fishing seasons that Oregon had,” he said. “But the weather was atrocious. It was pretty tough.”
Even with the successful tuna season in Oregon, Quick lost about $40,000 this year due to a non-lucrative salmon season.
“The price of salmon was more than filet mignon,” said Steve Carniglia, owner of Carniglia’s restaurant. “You never knew what the availability was. We had to raise our prices significantly. And customers were questioning us about the cost.”
He added that due to the high prices, most diners ended up choosing different fish, such as Petrale sole or rock cod.
Clawing Their Way Back from Crisis
After struggling through salmon season, fishermen were looking forward to the start of crab season, hoping that their crab catch would make up for their losses.
According to Stiller, crab season started relatively calm this year.
“There are issues every year about the price. But this year it’s a little calmer,” he said.
Stiller explained that crabbers usually set the price by negotiating with major buyers, mostly in the San Francisco area and at Bodega Bay.
“Here in Santa Cruz, we are at the southern end of the Dungeness crab fisheries. Prices are determined further north,” he added.
According to Carniglia, crabbers in the Santa Cruz area charge about $2 to $2.50 this year, while fishermen in San Francisco and Bodega Bay agreed to sell their catch for $1.85 a pound.
In big supermarkets crab prices are around $3.95, while in smaller shops and in restaurants the prices are higher.
Last year, fishermen were unsatisfied with crab prices.
“You couldn’t get local crab before Thanksgiving,” said Carniglia. “Fishermen went on strike, because they couldn’t agree on a price with buyers.”
“This year everybody seems to be happy with the price, even though crabbers were looking for a little more,” said Stiller.
The first day of the season, Nov. 15, marked a successful start.
“The catch was pretty good the first day,” said Stiller. “Crabbers were getting about 30 pounds per trap, which is really good.”
Most crabbers are running 150 to 200 traps in the area.
“Up in San Francisco and further up north in Oregon they [crabbers] set way more traps,” said Stiller. “They catch tens of thousands of pounds up there. In Oregon, they set a limit â€" nobody can have more than five hundred traps.”
California sets no limit for how much crab commercial fishermen can catch.
“The only restriction is that they can’t take undersized crab, nor can they take female crabs,” said Don Kelley from the Monterey field office for the California Department of Fish and Game.
For recreational fishermen seeking crab, the limit is set to 10 crabs per day.
“People can be in possession of 10 crabs at the same time,” said Kelley. “You can’t be in excess. Which means that if you have some crab in your fridge that also counts in your 10 [crab limit].”
Kelley added that while regulations governing salmon fishing have changed several times in the past few years, regulations for crabbing have been the same for decades.
Seafood Watch
While fishing can stir up the tranquility of the ocean, crabbing is a less environmentally damaging process.
“Crab fishing is a very clean fishery,” said Sutton, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. “It’s also very well managed.”
Because the fishing is clean and well managed, the Monterey Bay Aquarium encourages the consumption of crab.
“Dungeness crab is on our green list on our seafood watch card,” he added.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program was designed to raise consumer awareness about how important it is to buy seafood that comes from sustainable sources.
According to the program, sustainable seafood comes from sources, either fished or farmed, that can exist over the long term without compromising species survival or the health of the surrounding ecosystem.
The Seafood Watch program works with a group of fisheries researchers who evaluate the most popular seafood items on the market and make recommendations, categorizing products as “Best Choice,” “Good Alternative,” or a species to “Avoid.”
Criteria for categorization include an assessment of how many fish and wildlife get caught and killed accidentally while fishing for one species and how much damage is done to habitat needed by other ocean wildlife. Researchers also evaluate the farming method and how well the fisheries are managed.
Since 1999, the program has released consumer pocket guides that help people choose seafood that is caught or farmed in sustainable ways.
“People look for things they can do in their own life to make a difference,” said Sutton. “Lots of chefs, restaurateurs, even big retail groups, such as Wal-Mart, also started making a commitment to sustainable seafood. It’s very promising.”
“We definitely consider sustainability,” said Carniglia. “We follow the recommendations of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I want to see fishing sustainable. We can’t follow it 100 percent, but we get as close as we can.”
The program distributed approximately 3.5 million Seafood Watch pocket guides in 2006.
“We have reached almost 20 million people this year alone,” said Sutton. “But we also believe that it’s the big seafood buyers that really count. They make the decisions that govern what’s on the menu.”
For a Cleaner Ocean
In order to prevent further collapse of seafood species, over the opposition of many fishermen, California wildlife regulators are establishing the largest collection of “marine protected areas” in the nation. Within these areas, fishing is either completely prohibited or heavily regulated.
The first of these areas, which runs from Santa Barbara to Half Moon Bay and covers about 200 square miles, is scheduled to go into effect in early 2007.
The areas are made possible by the Marine Life Protection Act of 1999, which didn’t initially take effect after passage because funding was not available.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reestablished the program in 2004 with $7 million in funding from four conservation organizations, and the Fish and Game Commission voted this August to create 29 marine protected areas off the Central Coast after two years of discussions with fishermen, conservationists, and coastal residents.
“A lot of constituents and user groups were all part of a task force designed to come up with a lot of different proposals,” said Kelley of Fish and Game. “For instance, the scuba diving community might want to see certain areas protected. Or the defenders of wildlife, who would like to see other areas protected.”
Kelley said that most likely the proposal will become official around the end of next year.
“It’s really getting close to the final stages,” he said. “The proposal will go back to the Fish and Game Commission in February. Then people from the public and other agencies, user groups are allowed to comment on it. Most likely it will be altered and adjusted.”
While environmentalists are very excited about creating wildlife sanctuaries, fishermen are much less convinced that the strategy will work.
“I think the Marine Life Protection Act stinks,” said Stiller. “I don’t think we need it. … Of course there are problems in the ocean. But we
are definitely working on these issues here, whether it’s overfishing or water pollution.”
Stiller, who was a member of the working group set up by the Fish and Game Commission, argued that the coast is already well regulated, and there is no need for further regulations.
Sutton, on the other hand, believes that while in the short run creating sanctuaries might affect fishermen negatively, in the long run it will foster a much healthier ocean environment, which will also be beneficial for the commercial fishing industry.
“It’s between short-term pain and long-term gain,” he said. “Fishermen justifiably feel troubled after such a bad salmon season. But in the long run, I believe, it’s a win-win situation.”
Sutton explained that the main concept behind creating sanctuaries is that fish can reproduce there undisturbed by fishing.
“Fish can also grow much bigger, and a big female produces way more eggs than a small one,” he said. “Those eggs are exported to the surrounding areas, and that will be very good for fishermen. It will result in a much healthier environment and healthier fisheries.”
He added that creating the sanctuaries will take less time than it was originally anticipated, perhaps as little as three to five years.
“The species here are short-lived, and they reproduce quickly,” said Sutton. “In a few years it should be possible to enjoy the benefits.”
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