Coastal Shutdowns Begin

Looks like the state Fish and Game Commission ignored the pleas of sport fishermen and went ahead and closed off, or severely restricted, fishing in around 20% of the state's coastal waters by turning them into marine preserves. It's unclear but I'm guessing that's 20% in addition to the marine preserves that already exist.

I'm thinking this doesn't look good for Humboldt's fishing future but we'll have to wait and see. I suspect this will just be the beginning as it is with everything else in this state and it won't be but a few years before it will be difficult to buy fish caught in California as there will be few if any places to go fishing. I hope I'm wrong.

Things are looking worse and worse around here. I'm scared to death for my future.

Fisheries Looked At

Looks like someone is finally trying to take a look at the state of California's fisheries. I'm probably not alone in thinking they're breathing their last gasp, although perhaps I'm being unduly pessimistic.

As an aside, the Terry Tilman the Times- Standard refers to in the article is, I believe, the same Terry Tillman that used to work for Ecological Analysis Inc. and supervised some biological studies being done at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant when I worked there.

But speaking of fisheries, I was surprised to read in the The Daily Triplicate that Crescent City brings in more dollars per catch than other ports, including Eureka, although other ports bring in more fish. Not sure how that works(?).

The Triplicate article makes it sound like they're doing pretty good with fishing and they want to expand their fish processing operations. One of their biggest obstacles seems to be, believe it or not, effluent discharge. Apparently, the fish processor is having difficulty meeting waste water standards.

Where have we heard that before? Hey, I'm certainly all for clean water, but I have to wonder just how harmful it is releasing what must be basically fish juice back into the ocean?

In any case, let's wish Crescent City luck in their efforts to expand their fish processing operations.