Darrell Ticehurst/Fisheries Issues
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Weird Bait Situation
Jun. 18 2009, 11:28 AM
Jun. 18 2009, 11:28 AM
Where have the Anchovies gone?
Pence McKimmie, deckhand on a bait boat out of Half Moon Bay, talks about the frustration of finding live bait:
Pence McKimmie, deckhand on a bait boat out of Half Moon Bay, talks about the frustration of finding live bait:
“For some reason the anchovies are really hard to come by. Last year was tough, this year is ten times as tough, and the fish are small. The only anchovies from the Mexican border all the way up past Oregon are here in SF bay. Boats have been looking seven days a week out of Monterey since March and haven't caught one fish. They looked as far down as Point Conception and as far up as Pigeon (Pt.). We looked as far down as Pigeon and out to the islands and up to Point Reyes. It's wall to wall sardines.”
This “on-the-water” report is supported by other data as well. The sardines are here and they are often very large (7 to 8 inches) making it difficult for our small salmon to swallow. The smaller anchovies are the preferred food of our young feeder kings (as well as krill) and many are worrying whether the young salmon are finding enough to eat.
There appears to be a normal cycle where the sardines are in great abundance and then the anchovies become the dominant bait. The 1930s and 1940s saw huge numbers of sardines and the great expansion of the Monterey canneries. This was followed in the late 1940s of a complete collapse of the sardine biomass. It is just in the past ten years that we have seen the population explosion that Pence is now talking about.
Not everyone agrees, but many think that the current warmer water cycle off our coast is a natural oscillation and just part of normal ocean behavior. Others blame, of course, global warming, but the historical data points more toward a natural occurring warming period.
This “on-the-water” report is supported by other data as well. The sardines are here and they are often very large (7 to 8 inches) making it difficult for our small salmon to swallow. The smaller anchovies are the preferred food of our young feeder kings (as well as krill) and many are worrying whether the young salmon are finding enough to eat.
There appears to be a normal cycle where the sardines are in great abundance and then the anchovies become the dominant bait. The 1930s and 1940s saw huge numbers of sardines and the great expansion of the Monterey canneries. This was followed in the late 1940s of a complete collapse of the sardine biomass. It is just in the past ten years that we have seen the population explosion that Pence is now talking about.
Not everyone agrees, but many think that the current warmer water cycle off our coast is a natural oscillation and just part of normal ocean behavior. Others blame, of course, global warming, but the historical data points more toward a natural occurring warming period.
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