Voodo Science May Have Played a Part in the Decision!
Sorry to say guys but Rockfishing will be suspended throughout California as of November 21, 2003. It's official but certian sportfishing interest groups have begun to file lawsuits to oppose this anticipated attack on the saltwater sportfishing industry and anglers interests.
Allegations of improper data gathering, other data not representing the true state of the fishery and ignoring other data have been made since the get go.
This could mean three things immediately.
1) Some boats and their operators could go belly up from Monterey Bay to Santa Monica Bay as much of their fishing depends on the rockfishing season.
2) Other Boats from SMB to the Mexican Border will also face disaster due to the loss of anglers. Some boats will literaly go down with the ship!
3) The boats that we now ride for island trips and such will not be supported by their sisterships and landings as there will be no sustaining income for non-paying trips!
We just better hope some of the rockfishing anglers support our surface fishing activities till we extract ourselves from this mess!
The above opinion is my own and does not neccessarily reflect those of BFT.
JapanRon
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And that's not all ! Read this.
[#800080][size 2]Department of Fish and Game
Fish and Game Commission 03:004 November 14, 2003 [/size][/#800080]
Contact: Robert R. Treanor, Executive Director
Fish and Game Commission (916) 653-4899
California Fish and Game Commission Schedules Emergency
Teleconference Call
The California Fish and Game Commission has scheduled an emergency teleconference call for 2 p.m. , Tuesday, Nov.18 to consider conforming California's 2003 sport fishing regulations with the recently amended federal recreational groundfish rules scheduled to take effect on Nov. 21, 2003.
The Commission will also consider closing the recreational fishery for ocean whitefish through the end of the year. This action is needed to help avoid the incidental take and discard (dead) of over-fished rockfish species should anglers attempt to specifically target ocean whitefish during the rockfish closures.
Tuesday's teleconference call will originate from the 13th Floor Conference Room, Room 1320, in the Resources Building, 1416 Ninth St., Sacramento. Commission President Michael Flores will be at the Sacramento location. Commissioners Mike Chrisman, Sam Schuchat, Jim Kellogg and Bob Hattoy will be at their respective offices.
The statewide federal closures were adopted on Nov. 5 by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). The PFMC's actions prohibit recreational and commercial fishing for groundfish in most waters off of California's coastline. For detailed information on the PFMC's actions, log on the [url "http://www.pcouncil.org/"][#0033cc]www.pcouncil.org[/#0033cc][/url]. A Department of Fish and Game news release can be found at [url "http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/news03/03107.html"][#0033cc]http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/news03/03107.html[/#0033cc][/url].
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[size 2]Glad I heard about this now. I usually do some rock fishing in early Dec. That sucks![mad] Guess they better stay local for Halibut, bass and whitefish[/size]
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Hey there releasit,
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Whitefish are also on the closed list! No Lie!!!
Seems like they think that people going for Whitefish might accidently catch rockfish! This is no JOKE!
Let's see..... what else are they going to do to us?!!!
JapanRon
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[size 2]Can we still catch Mackeral or are those an endangered species now?[crazy][crazy][sly][/size]
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I think they might give us a punch card for the Mackeral. After the first 20 million are caught then they will put a warning out on the catch.
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