Reports From the Bridge

On behalf of The Crew of the Big Game 90 I would like to wish everyone a Happy new Year!!!!

I will be out of the office until Monday the 3rd. If you want to get in on the 50% off discount on 2011 trips Larry will be manning the phones right up to close of business on Friday.
call 858 270-7525 before the first and get your deposit in.

tight lines and good times
IRV

Don’t miss the Boat if you book a 2011 trip before January 1 you will receive a 50% discount on the trip price.
All you need to do is call 858 270-7525 and Larry will take care of you.

A 25% deposit is required at booking and you can make payments on the balance.

Don’t hold off until the last minute there has been lots of calls on this one and this offer is only good for 10 more days!!!!!!

 Free Holiday Shipping!

Order any number of items by December 31

And the Shipping is On Us!

Just click on this link  http://biggame90.org/store/

and check out what we have to offer

We have a couple of new designs that are showen on just t-shirts but you can have them put on any shirt or hoodie you like just contact us     mel@wideopenventures.net he will take care of you

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We need your HELP!  We have been going through a yearlong process to get the regulations amended regarding the Cow Cod Conservation Area.  Our proposal was to permit the retention of shelf rockfish and to move the fishing depth to 30 fathoms.  There has been some resistance and NOAA/NMFS is asking for more public comment before making a final decision.  This is one of those time E-mail form letters are not appropriate.  We request letters be written on company letterhead and sent to:

William Stelle, Administrator

Northwest Region, NMFS

Attn: Becky Renko

7600 Sand Point Way

NE., Seattle, WA 98115-0070

O K  Boys and Girls

Hear is another issue that needs to be addressed and you can help

below is a letter about the COW COD closures.

please read it and follow the instructions

The public comment instructions are at the bottom.

Remember a comment on this Blog all tho welcome it’s preaching to the Quire

That all ports are effected in the Southern California byte from San Diego to Santa Barbara.
*That there is a huge economic benefit in both the proposed changes to our fleet.
*That the the shift in effort created by this opportunity from a 0-60 depth range to a 0-30 depth range will create a savings in cowcod at the end of the year.
*That the Science supports a 50 fathom inner depth range and this will still leave a 20 fathom buffer.
*That the CPFV catch data “MRFS and CRFS” has only recorded one cowcod caught in the 20 to 30 fathom depth range in ten years.
*That the retention of shelf rockfish in the legal depths will stimulate our business because there are groups that want to fish these zones but don’t want to throw back fish.   
*That we will obtain our target limit of ten rockfish quicker with no by-catch and move us off the rockfish grounds by being able to retain shelf rockfish in the legal depths.
*

Dear Fishermen

I am republishing several comments and articles on the resent MLP voteplease read them all.  Your comments are welcome.                                                                                         Please don’t take this sitting down. Complaining on this forum is great but remember you are preaching to the quire hear . Make your voices heard in the Mainstream media and to the elected officials in Sacramento and Washington.

Lets go get them

Irv

 From S A C

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On December 15, 2010, the Fish and Game Commission (Commission) voted (3 to 2) to create a series of Marine Protected Areas along the South Coast.  The Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO) presented an eight page document to the Commission on behalf of SAC and the member parties to the PSO.  The document contained factual critical flaws with the process, setting the foundation for future legal action.  The PSO will continue to strive to come to a reasonable and appropriate resolution of this matter.

There will be some substantial changes in the near future which will potentially affect the MLPA path.  These include a new state governor and the replacement of member(s) on the Commission.  We will keep you informed as to the progress on this matter.  Our compliments to the fishermen who took the time to attend the meeting.

By JIM MATTHEWS

The state Fish and Game Commission adopted sweeping closures of ocean waters off the Southern California coast, eliminating sportfishing and most other uses in these areas in a vote on Wednesday in Santa Barbara. In adopting the regulations, mandated as part of the Marine Line Protection Act (MLPA), three words come immediately to mind about the process:

Corrupt, unfunded, and unnecessary.

The process has been flawed from the beginning.

First, there is massive conflict of interest that should disqualify two of the commissioners from voting: Commissioner Michael Sutton, whose employer stands to gain financially with the passage of massive closures, is violating conflict of interest laws every time he votes on MLPA issues, but the body that investigates these issues has been silenced by the Governor’s office. New commissioner Jack Baylis has ties to Heal the Bay, an environmental group that has lobbied for massive closures and also should have recused himself. He only was recently appointed to the Commission, when it appeared another appointee would vote against the closures, sending the plan back to the drawing board.

Second, the “science” outlining the need for the closures is dubious at best. George Osborne, representing the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans, a sportfishing group formed to respond to the MLPA closures, said it clearly and succinctly: “Proponents of the MLPA will have you believe that California marine resources are in dire straits…. This is simply untrue. There is not one marine fish stock experiencing overfishing in California’s waters.”

Third, the idea of reserves in both oceans and on land for preserving fish and wildlife populations is proving false where there have been experiments reserve-creation. The reserves on land or in water don’t appreciably help. In fact, in California there are “game reserves” all over that state that ban all hunting, the equivalent of what is happening to fishing in the ocean. The Department of Fish and Game’s biologists have examined many of these areas and have been unable to find any benefits to them. In fact, they have pursued legislation that would eliminate them statewide because there is no scientific justification. Yet Commissioner Sutton pointed to the shining example of terrestrial “reserves” throughout the MLPA process, ignoring the facts.

Fourth, management options outside of complete closures to fishing, were off the table from the beginning. An area couldn’t be managed, for example, with catch-and-release fishing or reduced bag limits to protect species, proving the process was flawed from the start. The reason California’s marine environment is so healthy (outside of pollution) is because we do manage fish stocks with commercial and sportfishing regulations based on science — not whim or feel-good closures.

Fifth, there has never been funding approved by the legislature to implement the MLPA. The money for the work done so far has largely been redirected from other Department of Fish and Game and other agency programs, much of that money diverted illegally from earmarked funds with slick accounting moves.

The bottom line is that implementation of the MLPA has been corrupt (if not downright illegal), unnecessary biologically, and a huge waste of funds from other programs that needed the money.

This is what Michael Munn had to say about going to the meetings
I went to a couple of the MLPA meetings and it was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. The public input time was a sham, as the closed areas and the outcome were already predetermined. They were merely paying us lip service and wasting everybodies valuable time.

I also spoke with a “Professor” from either UCSB or UCSC and all he kept talking about, is the degredation of the water quality affecting the resources. I think we can all agree that that is a BIG problem. However, when I asked him, “how is urban runoff the fault of fishermen?” He had no answer for that, except that we need to close all these areas to fishing. Oh, guess what else? The “Professor” who was for the closures, gets to “study” the affects that the closures have on the marine habitat. Can anyone guess what his “findings” are going to be? The whole procedure was/is a sham and a fraud! It just disgusts me!

From my good friend and long time sportfishing skipper

Garry Black

Thanks Irv, like you don’t have enough to do. I’m just curious about area off La Jolla, I grew up on the beach, later on a paddle board off Marine Street and Wind and Sea, fishing by and in the kelp. I know someone traced over 8 million dollars back to the Packard family, even though they tried to launder it passing thru other banks and businesses. Evidently the mainstream press is siding with the other side that says”there’s nothing left out there” You should hear our friend Adriana talk about La Jolla Cove and the seals (not the Harbor Seals at Casa) she swims from the cove to LJ Shores and back almost every day and says the larger seals challenge them and make  torpedo runs at them out on course they swim, and at the cove and cliffs next to it the bulls will not back down and snarl at them.. Sounds like a good area to slow troll a whole barracuda at dusk.