More interesting crap...a post from SC Surfishing forums:
December 31, 2011
Wardens won't be the only people on patrol when new fishing restrictions
take effect Jan. 1, setting up a network of state marine reserves on
about 15% of the Southern California coast.
Environmentalists are deploying dozens of volunteers to keep an eye on
the region's new Marine Protected Areas through a coalition of programs
called MPA Watch.
By boat, plane and from the shore, they will monitor fishing vessels,
kayakers, divers and any other human activity in the new sanctuaries.
And, in what is rankling fishermen, some of those monitors say they will
confront suspected violators and report them to the state Department of
Fish and Game.
The prospect of citizen patrols has drawn the anger of some anglers who
are already irritated about losing access to lucrative fishing areas.
Critics of the reserves, which are intended to allow depleted
populations of fish to recover, have eyed MPA Watch with suspicion,
saying that the environmental groups behind them are trying to take law
enforcement into their own hands. One group of recreational fishermen
crashed a training session in Malibu organized earlier this year by Heal
the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group based in Santa Monica.
Heal the Bay and other conservation groups from Santa Barbara to Orange
County say they will be another pair of eyes on the water, gathering
data on all human uses of the coastline, not just fishing, to assess how
behavior changes once the protections are in place.
Southern California's array of 50 marine sanctuaries, approved by the
state in 2010 after bitter negotiations between fishing and conservation
groups, will cover more than 350 square miles of the state's busiest
waters, from Point Conception to the U.S.-Mexico border. They include
kelp forests off Point Dume in Malibu and South La Jolla, Naples Reef
and Campus Point in Santa Barbara County, a lengthy stretch of the
Laguna Beach coastline and patchwork of habitat around the Channel
Islands.
The sanctuaries are the third segment in a statewide chain that
California is designating under the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act.
Some are "no-take" reserves that are off-limits to anglers, while other
conservation areas allow limited fishing. Setting aside an assortment of
underwater canyons, kelp forests, sandy sea floors and rocky reefs is
designed to help rockfish, cod, lobster, abalone and other sea creatures
whose populations have declined despite catch limits and other
regulations.
Among the biggest supporters of these aquatic reserves are the several
dozen volunteers who have signed up with Santa Barbara Channelkeeper to
walk the coast with binoculars and clipboards, noting every boat,
surfboard, kayak, float tube and shore angler they see. Forty volunteers
with Orange County Coastkeeper will help patrol and collect similar
data from Dana Point to Huntington Beach.
In Los Angeles County, more than two dozen volunteers with Heal the Bay
will conduct surveys from the shores of Zuma Beach and Abalone Cove.
Several dozen others will mark down the coordinates and activities of
vessels in the sanctuaries from aboard Santa Monica Baykeeper's 24-foot
motorboat. That's in addition to the conservation group's ongoing aerial
surveys of fishing vessels along the Southern California coastline.
Though some groups such as Heal the Bay are not instructing volunteers
to report suspected poachers, others plan to motor up to fishing boats
that they find in the sanctuaries, confront them and contact
authorities.
"We're not trying to nab anyone. We're trying to be friendly
neighborhood environmentalists," Brian Meux, marine programs manager for
Santa Monica Baykeeper, said at a mid-December training session in a
sanctuary area along Malibu's Point Dume. "We'll say: 'If a warden sees
you, you're going to get a ticket, man.' But if they're just unfriendly
and they keep fishing, we're just going to call Fish and Game."
Only a few dozen wardens patrol the entire Southern California coastline
and the Channel Islands in three 54-foot offshore patrol vessels and
about 10 smaller, shore-based boats. Supporters of the marine reserves
worry that won't be enough to ensure that the new rules are followed and
marine life is protected.
Although the state Department of Fish and Game has widely publicized the
new protected areas, releasing maps, coordinates and a mobile website,
fishing groups say there is bound to be some confusion about the
boundaries. Throwing third-party monitors into the mix could lead to
altercations on the water, they say.
"If a private citizen with no authority comes up and tells fishermen not
to do something, they may or may not believe the person is telling them
the truth," said Bob Fletcher, an advisor and past president of the
Sportfishing Assn. of California, an industry group that opposes the
sanctuaries that were adopted. "It may just create animosity between the
environmentalists and fishing groups, who are going to be affected very
negatively by these areas because they were really productive."
Fish and Game officials stressed that only their officers can enforce
the law. Still, the agency intends to act on information from
environmental groups and from a poaching tip line described as "a
confidential secret witness program."
"We don't have any illusion that we're going to catch everybody," said
Paul Hamdorf, assistant chief of the agency's law enforcement division,
who oversees wardens in Southern California. "But if these groups are
noticing a lot of violations every Saturday at a particular time and it
would direct us how to best use our resources, then we might use it."
Those found fishing in a closed area could face a warning and reminder about the restrictions, a ticket or arrest.
Scientists will be monitoring the areas too, trying to determine how effective they are at replenishing marine life.
University researchers, citizen-science volunteers, and even some
lobster fishermen will be participating in studies in a variety of
marine habitats. Some will count and measure key fish, invertebrates and
algae in rocky reefs and kelp forests while others will tag and capture
spiny lobsters to see if the restrictions have the intended "spillover"
effect, increasing fish abundance outside the limits of the
sanctuaries. One study will try to gauge how three sectors of the
coastal economy — private recreation, commercial fishing and charter
boat tourism — change once the reserves are in place.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]So be on the look out for busy bodies...he he he...let the games begin...
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