Aliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries
P O Box 1309, Carmel Valley, CA 93924 (831) 659-2838

To put this bycatch in perspective with other gears and user groups consider that according to the California's Living Marine Resources: A Status Report, December 2001 (LMR) there are 17. 8 million fish caught recreationally each year, while only 9.6 million of them are brought ashore. Similarly, other important commercial fisheries result in smaller fish caught and not landed.

In more recent years, concern has been raised about the impact of trawl gear upon the benthic environment. For many the sight of what appears to be very large heavy fishing gear sitting on a dock creates the impression that this same gear is on the ocean floor crushing everything that it contacts. In reality, the specific gravity of trawl gear makes it much lighter in the water and when deployed the gear is "flying" through the water. The movement of trawl gear through the water has been compared to the movement of spinning lures used by recreational in a mountain stream. If an angler reels his lure in too fast the lure rises in the water. If the lure is retrieved too slowly, the lure falls to the bottom. Trawlers tow their gear at a speed to easily move their net above the ocean floor.

Last year the National Academy of Science published a report on the impacts of trawls and dredges gear on the seafloor. This report presents a model that relates the impact on the ocean bottom with bottom substrate and frequency of natural disturbance. The ocean floor type with the lowest potential disturbance from fishing is the area with sandy bottom, while the area with the greatest potential impact is rocky area with large boulders. Across this gradient, the potential impacts from fishing increases with
frequency fished.

So where do the fisheries impacted by SB 236 take place? Referring to California's Living Marine Resources: A Status Report (December 2001) these animals generally live on sandy to mud bottoms. In order of occurrence in the report, the following characterizes their habitat:

Ocean shrimp (Pink shrimp): "Concentrations of shrimp generally remain in well-defined areas or beds from year to year. These areas are associated with green mud and muddy-sand bottoms."

Ridgeback prawn: "This species occurs on substrates of sand, shell and green mud."

Sea cucumber: "Sea cucumbers are epibenthic detritivores that feed on organic detritus and small organisms within the sediments and mud."

California halibut: "Adult California halibut inhabit soft bottom habitats in coastal waters generally less than 300 feet deep, with the greatest abundance at depths of less than 100 feet."

How much area is fished by these State managed trawl fisheries and how frequently do they return to the same grounds? The National Academy of Science report haracterizes the level of trawl fishing on the West Coast as low compared to other areas of the country. The report indicates that the amount of trawl activity was similar in all three states, with slightly higher effort occurring off Oregon. The report states that in the mid-1990's, in the area off California, about 15% of this area was swept with a trawl tow at least once per year. The remaining 85% of the area averaged less than one tow per year. This means that 85% areas had been towed only once every few year or not at all. Additionally, according to the report the amount of trawl activity had dropped by 60% by the late 1990's. Presenting recent Oregon data to show this decline in trawl activity the report indicates that in the late 1990's the area fished more than once per year had drop to 6% of the total area. This indicates that trawl fishing is not only light, it is also concentrated into a very small area of the total ocean seafloor. The regulations that have been implemented since 2000 have likely reduced the area fished once again by around one-half.

Many of the "declarations and findings" in SB 236 are simply not true or do not pertain to West Coast trawl fisheries. One finding states that the "Protections provided to the marine environment should be as effective as those provided to the terrestrial environment". If this were turned around and reworded so that impacts on the terrestrial environment can not be greater than the impacts caused by trawl gear in the marine environment, California would not have its large cities and freeways or lead the world in
agricultural production. The message given by this bill is improvements to sustainable fisheries are possible, but not allowed.

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