Quote:
Originally Posted by GregAndrew
Chris, MPAs have nothing to do with YT and WSB fishing catches over the last several years (nor were they ever designed to). 3 years of good Squid spawns followed by a couple of warm water years (even in winter) have brought and kept more YT year round. Are your trying to claim that there has been 8 years of great fishing? I can tell you that in 2010, all of the participants of the WCW were unable to submit just a single fish per month. Whether you call it El Nino or the Blob, it is warm water that has enabled the great wintertime YT fishing the last 2 years.
I would agree that MPAs can be a great thing in the right area, at the right time and instituted correctly. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the MLPA process in Ca. They did not even follow the basic guidlines set forth by the MPA Handbook. The biggest irony of the process was that they were saying there would be "spillover" outside to the MPAs while the design of the size of the MPAs was to prevent the resident fish from roaming outside. Some might argue that the eggs are the spillover, but that holds little water. The tiny critters that hatch from the eggs (if they survive that long) will be greeted by millions of hungry predators with little to nowhere to hide (the MPAs encompass most kelp and structure around them).
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Greg I want you to know that I respect you and your defense of this point. You have always been a positive influence in this community. But there are very few individuals on BWE who can legitimately claim to know the slightest thing about the life-cycle of pelagic fish. There are some genetic data to support the "homegaurd hypothesis". If it is true that YT are resident in the LJ area and spend a significant part of their lives in the waters surrounding the MPA, how can you claim that protecting that area has NO effect on YT population? Scientific evidence goes both ways, but you can't develop an effective policy based off a null hypothesis.
2010 was an epic squid bite year for many. Just not at any of the nests WCW participants were fishing I guess. My point is not that a specific MPA protects or doesn't protect a certain species or zone. Clearly that conversation should be dictated purely by science, of which there is little. The question is, do something or do nothing? Personally, after watching the kooks in la jolla my entire life, I would not trust the future of our fishery to their judgement. Certainly not to their scientific appraisal of the effectiveness of conservation measures.
My point is this: why are the people with the most to gain from conservation, so adamantly against it? We kayak fishers could have a very real contribution to make towards preserving our natural resource. Whether its tagging fish, taking samples, collecting data, submitting heads, volunteering at Hubbs etc. Some of us do this, yet many firmly place themselves "across the table" (as the OP put it) from scientists and policy makers; basically ensuring that our concerns are completely ignored?