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Sportfishing business gets break
Rockfish fair game after eight months on the off-limits list
By Terry Rodgers, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 5, 2003
When the numbers of ocean rockfish hit rock bottom, they nearly took California's charter sportfishing industry with them.
But the industry and recreational ocean anglers won a reprieve this week when federal regulators ended an eight-month fishing ban.
The ban resulted in "probably the worst economic blow this industry has seen in 20 years," said Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Association of California.
The closure, which applied to coastal waters from Cape Mendocino to the U.S.-Mexico border, was enacted to protect dwindling populations of six bottom-dwelling species.
The decline of the fish, called red snapper on restaurant menus and in grocery stores, indicated they were being overfished.
And the decision to lift the ban comes amid a broader debate about ocean wildlife resources. A report of the Pew Oceans Commission last month concluded that overfishing, pollution and coastal development threaten the oceans.
The ban imposed by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Council had put 8,500 square miles of California's continental shelf off-limits to fishing for rockfish and lingcod.
The results were dramatic. From November 2001 to April 2002 – before the restrictions were enacted – anglers aboard party boats based south of Santa Barbara brought in 182,000 rockfish, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
From November 2002 to April 2003, an estimated 5,000 rockfish were taken.
The restrictions caused financial stress for Southern California's estimated 225 party-boat owners and pushed a few out of business, Fletcher said.
"From February through the early part of May, it was pretty tough," said John Yamate, general manager of Seaforth Sportfishing at Mission Bay. "We released a lot of lingcod in that time."
Potential customers were discouraged because fish that are released aren't tallied in the daily fish counts announced by each sportfishing landing.
The West Coast has more than 80 species of rockfish, which also are fished commercially. Many rockfish grow slowly and have boom-and-bust reproductive cycles that make them susceptible to overfishing.
Last year, the fisheries council, which oversees fishing along the West Coast, set an annual rockfish limit for California, after which fishing was banned. Recreational anglers were allowed to take 80 percent of the limit. Commercial fishers, who got the remaining 20 percent, can fish for 10 months beginning in January. This year, recreational anglers are allowed a six-month season that began Tuesday and ends Dec. 31, or sooner if the limit is reached.
To keep anglers away from the deep-sea habitat preferred by most rockfish species, they are permitted to fish in waters up to 120 feet deep.
If anglers catch any bocaccio, yelloweye, cowcod or canary rockfishes, those fish dead or alive, must be thrown back.
Each winter and spring, party-boat operators rely on bottom-dwelling rockfish to lure in customers for "deep sea" fishing trips.
In summer and fall, savvy skippers are able to put anglers on to more exciting migratory sport fish such as yellowtail and tuna as well as barracuda and bass.
The Southern California party-boat industry employs more than 5,000 workers and attracts about 750,000 anglers annually.
Several recreational fishing fleets tried to make up for the loss of customers by enticing tourists to see migrating Pacific gray whales from December to March.
Helgren's Sportfishing at Oceanside Harbor began offering discount coupons over the Internet and highlighted its burial-at-sea program for the bereaved to dispose of the ashes of their loved ones.
"We're trying to open up new ways to promote more business," said Helgren's Mike Eggleston, who said business at his party-boat landing was down at least 30 percent during the rockfish ban.
San Diego's party boats maneuvered around the closure by increasing their trips into Mexican waters. These trips brought anglers to rock cod and lingcod off the Baja California coast.
But further north, there were few legal species to catch.
"Los Angeles harbor sportfishing had the worst first half of the year they've ever seen," Fletcher said. "No one wanted to go fishing just on the off chance they might be able to get a game fish."
Party-boat operators in Central California also saw their customers evaporate.
"North of Point Conception, 80 percent of their fish are rockfish," Fletcher said.
Next year's rules on rockfish fishing in Southern California probably will be even less stringent. Scientists working for the Pacific fisheries council recently reassessed the bocaccio population and determined it can recover over the next 30 years with fewer restrictions on anglers.
The fisheries council has recommended allowing fishing for rockfish south of Point Conception in waters up to 180 feet deep, 60 feet deeper than the current rules allow.
"Although the stock (of bocaccio) is considered overfished and in need of rebuilding, the new information shows the situation is not as bleak as it was a year ago," said Tom Barnes, a senior marine biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.
Milton Love, a UC Santa Barbara researcher and an expert on rockfish, said loosening the restrictions too soon would be unwise.
"You have this constant drumbeat from the fishing industry that there is not a problem, and that scientists don't know what they are talking about," Love said. "It's hard to resist that drumbeat that says we have to keep catching fish."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com
Rockfish fair game after eight months on the off-limits list
By Terry Rodgers, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 5, 2003
When the numbers of ocean rockfish hit rock bottom, they nearly took California's charter sportfishing industry with them.
But the industry and recreational ocean anglers won a reprieve this week when federal regulators ended an eight-month fishing ban.
The ban resulted in "probably the worst economic blow this industry has seen in 20 years," said Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Association of California.
The closure, which applied to coastal waters from Cape Mendocino to the U.S.-Mexico border, was enacted to protect dwindling populations of six bottom-dwelling species.
The decline of the fish, called red snapper on restaurant menus and in grocery stores, indicated they were being overfished.
And the decision to lift the ban comes amid a broader debate about ocean wildlife resources. A report of the Pew Oceans Commission last month concluded that overfishing, pollution and coastal development threaten the oceans.
The ban imposed by the Pacific Marine Fisheries Council had put 8,500 square miles of California's continental shelf off-limits to fishing for rockfish and lingcod.
The results were dramatic. From November 2001 to April 2002 – before the restrictions were enacted – anglers aboard party boats based south of Santa Barbara brought in 182,000 rockfish, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
From November 2002 to April 2003, an estimated 5,000 rockfish were taken.
The restrictions caused financial stress for Southern California's estimated 225 party-boat owners and pushed a few out of business, Fletcher said.
"From February through the early part of May, it was pretty tough," said John Yamate, general manager of Seaforth Sportfishing at Mission Bay. "We released a lot of lingcod in that time."
Potential customers were discouraged because fish that are released aren't tallied in the daily fish counts announced by each sportfishing landing.
The West Coast has more than 80 species of rockfish, which also are fished commercially. Many rockfish grow slowly and have boom-and-bust reproductive cycles that make them susceptible to overfishing.
Last year, the fisheries council, which oversees fishing along the West Coast, set an annual rockfish limit for California, after which fishing was banned. Recreational anglers were allowed to take 80 percent of the limit. Commercial fishers, who got the remaining 20 percent, can fish for 10 months beginning in January. This year, recreational anglers are allowed a six-month season that began Tuesday and ends Dec. 31, or sooner if the limit is reached.
To keep anglers away from the deep-sea habitat preferred by most rockfish species, they are permitted to fish in waters up to 120 feet deep.
If anglers catch any bocaccio, yelloweye, cowcod or canary rockfishes, those fish dead or alive, must be thrown back.
Each winter and spring, party-boat operators rely on bottom-dwelling rockfish to lure in customers for "deep sea" fishing trips.
In summer and fall, savvy skippers are able to put anglers on to more exciting migratory sport fish such as yellowtail and tuna as well as barracuda and bass.
The Southern California party-boat industry employs more than 5,000 workers and attracts about 750,000 anglers annually.
Several recreational fishing fleets tried to make up for the loss of customers by enticing tourists to see migrating Pacific gray whales from December to March.
Helgren's Sportfishing at Oceanside Harbor began offering discount coupons over the Internet and highlighted its burial-at-sea program for the bereaved to dispose of the ashes of their loved ones.
"We're trying to open up new ways to promote more business," said Helgren's Mike Eggleston, who said business at his party-boat landing was down at least 30 percent during the rockfish ban.
San Diego's party boats maneuvered around the closure by increasing their trips into Mexican waters. These trips brought anglers to rock cod and lingcod off the Baja California coast.
But further north, there were few legal species to catch.
"Los Angeles harbor sportfishing had the worst first half of the year they've ever seen," Fletcher said. "No one wanted to go fishing just on the off chance they might be able to get a game fish."
Party-boat operators in Central California also saw their customers evaporate.
"North of Point Conception, 80 percent of their fish are rockfish," Fletcher said.
Next year's rules on rockfish fishing in Southern California probably will be even less stringent. Scientists working for the Pacific fisheries council recently reassessed the bocaccio population and determined it can recover over the next 30 years with fewer restrictions on anglers.
The fisheries council has recommended allowing fishing for rockfish south of Point Conception in waters up to 180 feet deep, 60 feet deeper than the current rules allow.
"Although the stock (of bocaccio) is considered overfished and in need of rebuilding, the new information shows the situation is not as bleak as it was a year ago," said Tom Barnes, a senior marine biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.
Milton Love, a UC Santa Barbara researcher and an expert on rockfish, said loosening the restrictions too soon would be unwise.
"You have this constant drumbeat from the fishing industry that there is not a problem, and that scientists don't know what they are talking about," Love said. "It's hard to resist that drumbeat that says we have to keep catching fish."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Rodgers: (619) 542-4566; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com
