'Illusion of plenty' masking collapse of 2 key Southern California fisheries

[robmandel]

like every "study", there are many variables. I would tend to agree that yes, the fishing has declined over the course of the last thirty years I've been fishing. but then again, that's relative to a few things. certainly I've seen some fishing rebound and improve dramatically, for instance the channel islands in ventura/SB counties.

The authors acknowledge that both bass species began declining in the early 1980s, a drop other studies have directly linked with a climatic shift in regional water temperatures. But they say fishing impacts exacerbated the declines.
"The combined evidence from this study indicates that persistent overfishing of seasonal spawning aggregations by recreational fisheries brought about the collapse of barred sand bass and kelp bass stocks in Southern California," the authors write in their paper.

I'm not going to dispute that the fish stocks are not what they once were. however, the question as to why is different. the tremendous growth of coastal populations and all the crap that gets dumped in the water can't be helpful. also, these fish are very structure oriented and that's been a problem.

look at a study like that (and since I teach economics, one must always be aware of cause vs. effect, and must appreciate the difference) and that means the declining bass populations aren't the "problem" but the result of the problem. since they're at the end part of the chain (figuring that water quality improves kelp, more kelp and plankton, more bait fish, more bait fish, etc.) one has to go back to the beginning. bass populations are an amalgam of the components, not the singular issue.

bottom line is that we have ALWAYS supported sound management, reduced take limits, slot limits, all that. no fisherman wants to fish out the ocean. closing off areas to fishing aren't going to the core of the problem since the declining populations are an end result.

In fact, closing areas will only make the problem worse, as we pointed out at the public hearings. the open areas will get overfished even worse, leaving a greater imbalance between the populated areas. and that still won't solve the other environmental issues that have hurt the fish stocks.