Scripps fish abundance study and MPAs

[Rufus]

Read this a couple of times and pay close attention to the results:


https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/califo...-are-declining


This is a study of larval fish abundance, both near shore and off shore. Larval fish stocks are a good model for study because they are not susceptible to commercial or recreational fishing, and larval fish abundance is a strong indicator of adult fish populations.


The study shows that larval fish stocks have declined 72% since 1970 because of natural changes in the California current. "These results also dispel previous speculation that commercial fishing or seawater intakes are always primary causes of fish population declines."

In other words, Scripps says that the decline of the traditional (at least in our lifetime) fish stock in California is due to the natural and evolutionary change in the California current. Some fish populations decline, and some fish populations take advantage of the new conditions and prosper, as we have seen this year and last.

What this study doesn't say, but we can deduce from its results, is that marine protected areas that were established by a very few politically powerful, environmentally radical, special interests are not going to work to re-establish traditional fish stocks.

What the creations of the MPAs have done is much more insidious, they have denied you access and use of publically owned resources.

Guys, please trust science, not politics, not politicians, and certainly not zealots, environmental, or otherwise.