:@
I've read a few articles that blame the Humboldt Squid for the increased activity. I have yet to see a squid wash up here in Manhattan Beach but we have plenty o juvi sharks.:confused1:
Juve white sharks have long been common in Santa Monica bay..... ie.... I know they were often caught by H&L and some commerical guys in the 50 and 60s....
Pretty much same for the small ones in San O area.
The second week in Oct is when I am much more careful about where I dive. This personal precaution is based on my sightings and notes.
Don
Interesting advise Don. The smaller ones seem to be around So Cal most of the time but the big ones clearly move around on a "schedule." - of course, October is one of my favorite times to dive... ususally clear water (compared to other months locally), beach crowds are gone, and it's still warm.
Most recent previous CA Fatal attack was also at SURF beach near Lompoc in OCT 2010, - I think only a couple of days before the current attack.
Sign Below was posted well before current attack.
Congrats! REALLY AMAZING for a first hali!!
it was tough seeing my son look at me with a Hug smile , hooting and hollering "dad check out this Scallop" then seeing his face when he remembered it was the last day we would ever be able to do that together , I was holding back tears all day
Great picture Joe.
Laguna is a terrible loss to all of us who enjoy harvesting in the ocean. My family legacy from 1933 thru 2011.
I'll be in Laguna for a last hunt. Some local red tide in Laguna.. - so pick your spot..... and if one bad just move on to another
some rambling thoughts.
Read the details. Look at the graphs.
California Department of Fish & Game, Marine Region, State Finfish Management Project, California Halibut Stock Assessment
Read the Peer review
http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36258&inline=true
The models have great uncertainty....
Do we have less halibut and less wetlands than 1910.... Of course... and wetlands are important to halibut..... but are we at 13 or 14% of unfished???? I find that hard to believe.
Are there natural cycles -Yes... on local and larger scales.
Things I know from personal observation diving (a lot) for halibut since 1952. -- now there are more 15#+ halibut being taken by recreational fishermen than for most of the past 50 years.... I credit the gill net ban in state waters.
Changes in Catch.... In the 60's (see graph) there were massive halibut catchies inside LA Harbor. You would see boats just off Belmont shores loading up every afternoon. I also remember great halibut diving at Torrance Beach and Malaga cove in the 60's.
Cycles and local changes.... There's an area we dove a lot at Catalina in the early 80's that looked good for halibut.... but I only found a few. That same area for the last few years has be a go to spot for good size halibut...........
I'm not sure but I think gill nets are still used / allowed on the Ventura shelf outside of State waters.... This is a major halibut area. And these fish move around, so still some impact.
So, what's to come. I assume we'll see a lower limit on halibut...
Rockin mate...I'm powering the vitamins, and drowning the cold/flu with the Netti Pot.:thumbsup2:
Cheers, Don
hope it works don............
I'm supposed to be chasing pup fish in the desert this week..... but home fighting some ugly virus....
conditions should be great with this offshore.
this is just more crap piled on a pile of ....... etc.
Given where some of the boundaries were drawn, a number of us will end up fishing / diving very close to "the line"..... and my gps doesn't work underwater....... I just hope they post maps with Satellite views that clearly show where they think the boundaries are.............. IF - When they do, I'll carry copies with me (in car).
Laguna is already training staff and "volunteers" to enforce the new regs..... just scary!
doesnt get any better! fresh halibut and scallops. Great!
The Laguna Eco freaks win yet another...... gotta say they've done a great job of selling there program.... the quote from NOAA
"NOAA's Fisheries Service excluded the area of rocky habitat from Corona Del Mar State Beach to Dana Point from the designation, because the economic benefits of exclusion outweigh the benefits of inclusion, and the exclusion will not result in the extinction of the species. It was also determined that San Clemente Island and San Nicolas Island were no longer eligible for designation due to the development of integrated natural resources management plans that provide benefits to black abalone."
Much / most of this area is MPA with about 7 miles completely closed to fishing..... but.... We're going to allow millions to trample the tide pools for (possible) economic benefit"......
This while the FGC will cause great econmic harm to the fishing industry by closing areas instead of proper management.
mike
Very Nice.... perfect shot on the left - which is a lefty - 5 prong the best way to go on halis up to at least 30#s - complete control. - - - and they are always stunned - often stoned with one prong in the spine or "brain"........ and you didnt damage any meat....
only thing is................. you must be mistaken on location...... there are no halibut in Laguna 
congrats.
Guys..... this really should not be a surprise to anyone...... unless you just came to CA and started fishing or diving in the last few weeks.
Who ever put the map together - I'll assume - was trying to help us... to know where we can fish..... Remember all of this was Scheduled to start Oct 1, 2011. Only because the OAL found problems was implementation delayed.... The real final vote on this.... happened last December!
Yes - we are screwed! Especially those of us in OC. (ie - all of the really good, best vis spearfishing areas will be closed..... Places Ive been spearing for 59 years!)...
Don, you bet.... WE should All be going to our fav churches in soon to be closed MPAs and taking up a collection!
(side note.... the great conditions of the past few days in Laguna went downhill quick this AM with bigger swell and on shore wind..... along with huge tide swing...... I just hope the wind switches to offshore and howls to clean things up).
if you want more info
California Department of Fish & Game, Marine Life Protection Act, South Coast Study Region is a good place to start.
If you want to do something to fight the MLPA - donate to the legal battle Now. Link below.
Ocean Access Protection Fund | Protecting Ocean Access For All Californians
good one...................
that's why I eat what I catch.
The thing I value most is a conditions report. Mainly water visibility.... And saying Laguna, PV, or Malibu, or Cat is close enough.
You dont have to say I just got this 50# halibut on the south side of Bubbas Cove to make it an useful or interesting report.
And.... along those lines... the vis in Laguna is still good, but a swell is coming.
Nice story Chris..... It's great to find great vis in those areas that "never have good vis".....
Congrats Daniel! - always nice when a plan works!
From http://www.lagunabeachindepend…ightings_on_the_Rise.html 10/29/10
"Shark Sightings on the Rise
Coincides with an influx of ocean-going recreation
By Ted Reckas | LB Indy
Last week’s fatal shark attack on a body boarder near Santa Barbara County’s surfing Shangri-la, Hollister Ranch, made clear that the ocean remains in a sense, a wild place.
This summer a video of a juvenile white shark recorded by Dana Point’s Chuck Patterson off San Onofre State Beach gained widespread attention. While unsettling, the presence of juvenile white sharks was known by surfers who frequent the break. Stand-up paddle racing champion Byron Kurt, of Dana Point, has had so many encounters that he doesn’t get out of the water. “I’ve had 20 sightings in the last year and a half, close enough where I could have stuck my paddle in the water and hit it if I wanted to. But they were very mellow. Nothing aggressive ever.”
Of greater concern were numerous sightings in late August of mature white sharks, 16 to 18 feet long, spotted 1,000 yards off Sunset Beach, a popular surf spot in Santa Monica. They prey on large marine mammals, unlike fish-eating juveniles that are not considered a threat to humans.
“Their presence at these numbers this year in local waters, is as far as I know, totally unprecedented,” said 50-year diver Patrick Smith, of Long Beach, a NOAA consultant and co-author of “Shipwrecks of Southern California.”
Despite more sightings, possibly due to the proliferation of people, cameras and mobile phones, shark attacks on humans along California’s coastline have not increased. Over 85 years, 98 people have reported injurious encounters with sharks, including 12 fatalities, according to University of Florida’s International Shark File. Neither does the published literature by pelagic experts show a spike in the population of sharks, listed as a threatened species by numerous conservations groups.
That, however, may change. Prominent white-shark researcher Chris Lowe, of Cal State Long Beach, claims more white sharks are thriving in Californian waters.
“We have some data that show the population may be increasing. And based on all the evidence, that is what we should expect to see,” said Lowe, whose research has yet to undergo peer review or publication.
Lowe’s expectations arise from several changes affecting shark habitat: a 1994 ban on gillnet fishing, which took a heavy toll on several species including white sharks; protections for white sharks enacted the same year; an increase in reports since 2001 by fishermen releasing juvenile white sharks caught as by-catch; and a flourishing population of seals and sea lions, white sharks’ food supply, since passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972.
In addition, scientists in September found three times the normal number of sea otters in Central California dead from shark bites.
Jeffrey Graham, a 25-year white shark researcher at La Jolla’s Scripps Institute of Oceanography, remains skeptical.
“The general consensus is (white sharks) are over-fished. I would say there aren’t more than 10,000 in the whole world. I have heard no data to suggest there are more sharks present now than there were 20 years ago. Believe me, if there were that data, I would know about it.”
In fact, “depletion of top oceanic predators is a pressing global concern,” concluded a 2009 study by Sal Jorgenson and colleagues at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Lab.
The increase in sightings seems to contradict the research, which shows many shark species that lack the protections given white sharks are in decline.
“There are more eyes on the ocean. More communication about it, too,” said Scripps’ Graham. “Everything we know is much more magnified now than it was 10 to 15 years ago.”
Kurt, who has surfed at San Onofre since 1975, only spotted sharks in the last two years since undertaking stand-up paddling, which allows a higher vantage point. “They’ve always been there. We are seeing a lot more because of the SUP population out there,” he said.
After the release of Peter Benchley’s book “Jaws” in 1975 and the movie the following year, shark reports spiked and then tapered off in the ‘80s, the second highest decade of shark attacks in the state when three people died. The worst periods occurred in the last decade and in the 1950s, when four people died in shark attacks in each 10-year period, according to state Fish and Game Department data.
Some suggest the rising number of shark encounters reflects less about the shark population than the increase in the human one and their recreational use of the ocean.
While Lowe maintains the great white shark population probably has increased, he concedes attacks by sharks have not. “The more remote places are where human-shark encounters happen. Look at how many people are in the water at a place like Bolsa Chica on Labor Day. Do you see shark attacks there ever? No,” he said.
Jorgenson said more data is needed to conclude the white shark population is increasing. “The number is quite low, maybe lower than people would expect. The indications that may suggest the white shark is increasing come from data on juvenile white sharks. They have different habitat than adults.”
Longtime local diver Nancy Caruso said she may have seen a great white 10 years ago, miles offshore in 2,000 feet of water. “Just as it saw me it turned around and swam away. They don’t like scuba divers. I rarely see a shark in Laguna if ever. I don’t worry about sharks at all.”
Free diver Bryan Menne spotted a shark he estimated to be six feet long about 30 years ago. More recently, he regularly sees smaller sharks. If there are more white sharks in the water, he attributes it to an increase in the seal population.
Jorgenson dismisses the connection. He said the pinniped populations have rebounded, but remain a fraction of their size prior to being hunted.
Lowe remains steadfast. “It’s remarkable that with a species like the white shark, with the worst reputation with humans, all these countries had the wherewithal to protect them. This is a success story. We should be happy. We don’t get them very often.”
Ono! clearly a great trip.
OK - here's all the answers
Sharks: Tips to avoid the fatal mistake
