BY MERIT McCREA
SACRAMENTO – Over 50 recreational angling advocates showed up in person and online to testify before the Fish and Game Commission at their most recent meeting at the Natural Resources Building in Sacramento. They brought their perspectives on the potential for severe restriction, even full closure of sand bass in the summer months. This was on the agenda for discussion.
Several Sportfishing Association of California representatives flew from San Diego to Sacramento for the day as did several other skippers from the South Coast including Aaron Graham from the 22nd Street Landing, owner/captain of the Native Sun. With so many in the cue to speak, times were limited to just a minute each.
With extra time ceded by a trio of sign-ups, Graham was able to show his video of anglers on deck catching and releasing sand bass, fish flopping on the surface over a wide area and angler interviews.
There was testimony from anglers of all walks, including fisheries scientists at the Pfleger Institute in Oceanside. Capt. Fred Huber was there in person, as was SAC President Ken Franke. Cameron Cribben and Mitch of Mitch’s Sea Food in San Diego. Donna Kalez from Dana Wharf Sportfishing flew in too. Many others joined on line.
The angler presence online was astounding, more than 50 signed up just there. With a range of experiences to relate and reasons why sand bass were important to them common threads were what they’d experienced didn’t jibe well with the story much of the sand bass science had zeroed in on, which was local sand bass were in trouble because catches had crashed since the late 1990s and though there was an up-tick in keepers in the catch, small sand bass were ever more scarce locally.
Skippers felt the science had missed a critical observation, that most of the sand bass population was well south of SoCal off Baja, and our big catches back in the ‘90s and early 2000s were mostly a result of southern fish swirling northward when large numbers, water and forage conditions sent them our way.
That meant further cutting back was unlikely to provide a meaningful future fisheries benefit. The big catches in California were largely dependent on occasionally getting a summertime slice of a much bigger Baja sand bass pie, more than just the much more modest resident sand bass residing on local inshore reefs.
Izorline’s Wendy Tochihara put out an online petition that quickly gathered close to 800 signatures opposing the proposed closure of sand bass fishing during summer months. Signatories added hundreds of comments. Paul R added “We see sand bass in good, stable numbers when spearfishing, constantly. The recent size increase and bag reduction are more than sufficient to keep the population healthy; any closure or further reduction is unwarranted.”
A couple commenters flatly voiced further restrictions were simply part of a progressive plot to discourage fishing in general. Commissioners heard it and several responded sharply that discouraging the public from fishing was absolutely not their objective – quite the opposite in fact.
Commissioners Erica Zavaleta and Samantha Murray had made clear that they had been taken aback by apparent dissonance between the California Department of Fish and Game’s presentation in their December meeting and their recommended action of a 1-fish year-round reduction in the sand bass bag limit to 4 fish per angler per day.
They felt the presentation pointed to a need for a much more drastic cutting the catch, even shutting it down during the summer.
However, Commissioner Darius Anderson said he was not swayed by the science argument that there was a problem, and offered that at this point he was in favor of no change in the bass regulations, 5-fish, 14-inches minimum size.
Marine region director Dr. Craig Schuman brought forward a much more full rationale for the Department’s position, clarifying why it was felt a 4-fish bag was the preferred action. In part this included the support by anglers and the partyboat fleet for it and commitment by the SAC fleet to help in the scientific effort to better quantify both the abundance of locally grown small sand bass as a fraction of the catch.
That fleet is also seeking to work with scientists south of the border to tag sand bass there and get a better handle on the actual range of the sand bass stock. While there have been robust tagging efforts in California it appears there has been little opportunity or effort to recover tagged fish from Mexican waters or tag them there to see how much mixing happens.
Dr. Schuman answers questions about risk and data collection: “I went into Ken Franke’s office, Paul Handruf brought me in there, and we sat down, introduced me to Ken, and, we looked at each other and we shook hands and we agreed we were gonna work together. We were gonna change the dynamic between the Department and the sportfishing fleet because we agreed if we worked together, we would get more done and we’d be more successful. And so we both worked really, really hard over those ensuing 12 years to get to that point and that’s part of where we ended up after the MRC discussion back in July, I believe it was in Santa Rosa. When the Department brought its initial recommendation, we could tell very quickly that it was not landing well with the fleet. There was a lot of concern, there was a lot of angst, around the recommendation we had based on the data we had. We had very wise recommendation from the MRC to go work with stakeholders, get more information, and come back and what we did, and through those conversations we came to the conclusion that the potential conservation benefits from a more precautionary approach really weren’t worth the loss social capital, trust, that we would build with the fleet, and taking a less precautionary approach would be in the best interest of the best long-term interest of the resource.” “Hopefully when we come back in two years, we’re all agreeing with what the results say and we’re not disagreeing with what the science says.”
Commissioner Erik Sklar noted he’d been in favor of retaining the option of zeroing out the bag limit during the summer months within the range for consideration. However at this time he was now in favor of following the Department recommendation of a 4-fish bag limit.
In addition he desired to have that be the Commission’s preferred action as of this meeting. He thought it was important to not leave the active angling community and the fleet with the angst and stress of having other more drastic cuts remain under consideration between then and the decision meeting in April.
Commissioner Darius Anderson offered:
“And the reason this resonates with me, to my fellow commissioners, is some days I wake up running a (hunt) club and feel like it’s death-by-a-thousand-cuts, right? I get an ammo tax, you know, that the legislature puts in place, my gasoline cost goes up, my food cost goes up. You know, people feel the stress. They don’t com out to my club as much and they don’t spend as much money. And so, you know, every one of you, and I hear the stories, I’m worried about you, just the ways I’m worried about my own business. And so, I feel your pain…all of us do it because we love what we’re doing and we’re passionate about what we’re doing.” Anderson was regretful but did end up supporting a reduction in the bag limit to the Department recommemd
One by one each commissioner offered their support for Sklar’s proposal to go with the Department’s 4-fish sub-bag limit on sand bass, and while the final decision will come in April, there’s a lot to be thankful for in that relief from having a huge cut, even a closure hanging over angler’s and the local feet’s heads.
