VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR THE ECOTRUST SOUTH COAST MLPA SURVEY

[Billy V]

It might be a good idea to start compiling a "List of Kayak Fishing Areas"
that are sacred to us, so we have continuity when answering this Survey.

It can be done in another thread if necessary. Sort of Pre-Running the Survey Process.

Maybe PAL could do something as simple as List all the Areas us Southern Yak Fisherman should be placing our Pennies on.

Its a way of putting up a United Front during this survey process.

[Handymansd]

Originally Posted by Billy V

It might be a good idea to start compiling a "List of Kayak Fishing Areas"
that are sacred to us, so we have continuity when answering this Survey.

It can be done in another thread if necessary. Sort of Pre-Running the Survey Process.

Maybe PAL could do something as simple as List all the Areas us Southern Yak Fisherman should be placing our Pennies on.

Its a way of putting up a United Front during this survey process.

Simple... yet effective...

[dorf]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I can't wait to offer my input.

I agree with Billy V.
If my survey can help other angler's hot spots and they can help out on mine why not start a list?

[PAL]

It might be a good idea to start compiling a "List of Kayak Fishing Areas"
that are sacred to us, so we have continuity when answering this Survey.

It can be done in another thread if necessary. Sort of Pre-Running the Survey Process.

Maybe PAL could do something as simple as List all the Areas us Southern Yak Fisherman should be placing our Pennies on.

Its a way of putting up a United Front during this survey process.

Ok, there's a bunch to touch on here.

First off, we can't game the survey without bringing all the data into question. What we can do - and this was a concesssion from Ecotrust, the survey designer - is encourage experienced kayak anglers to sign up.

BUT - I don't feel I'm going to far when I mention that the bays aren't facing the same closure threat as the ocean. Although there will be MPAs (closures) in the bays, as the guidance document is written now, they don't contribute much to a network's conservation score. The game here is pitching a network with high conservation value but limited impact on anglers.

Ah, but that's not all. We get to ground truth the survey. We also negotiated with Ecotrust to perform some surveys face to face or in small groups, rather than solely via the internet, where the data could potentially be monkey-wrenched or manipulated by pro-closure interests. We may even get to recruit focus groups for each area for those small group sessions.

When it comes to the crown jewels, we have our own data collection going at http://www.kfaca.org/launchsites.htm. The info - what you call a list of kayak fishing areas - will go to yet another MLPA data collection effort. Please check it out. It is very close to what you are asking for. The real precision - where exactly to draw a line - will come later in the game.

Both of these products - the Ecotrust survey and the GIS launch sites map - will be furnished to the Regional Stakeholders Group for use in the network planning process. Again, it is a list it or lose it situation.

[Sherm]

Paul,

Signed up. When thinking of sites to fish and to launch......should I take buggin into account or is this strictly fishing related? I know a lot of these sites would over lap. Just curious about the buggin question.

Sherm

[PaddleHP]

I spoke to a spear fisherman just last week at LJ Shores, and he said he had been to many of the public MLPA meetings. He essentially said that the MLPA was going to let us vote on taking an absurd amount of great fishing waters or taking even more great fishing waters. It's not looking good.
Eitherway I signed up for the survey. Let's see what they'll ask us.

[Useful Idiot]

Originally Posted by PaddleHP

I spoke to a spear fisherman just last week at LJ Shores, and he said he had been to many of the public MLPA meetings. He essentially said that the MLPA was going to let us vote on taking an absurd amount of great fishing waters or taking even more great fishing waters. It's not looking good.
Eitherway I signed up for the survey. Let's see what they'll ask us.

The way the process works is the regional stakeholder group (which we are currently trying to get PAL appointed to) will come up with a few different maps which are forwarded to a DFG committee which will take public input hearings and eventually vote on the final map which will be forwarded to another committee for final approval.

The stakeholder group is comprised of enviro's, fishermen, business owners etc. There will likely be 4 or 5 maps that come out of the process with one extreme having massive closures and the other hardly any. Both will more than likely be thrown out by the committee with something in the middle being the final result.

The only input we have on the process is through our representative on the stakeholder group. If we don't have a kayak fishing rep on that board, our voices will likely not be heard. At no point will there be a public vote on which map is selected like the freediver told you on the beach.

[PAL]

FYI - the first invitations to fill out the Ecotrust Survey are going out.
I had the opportunity to beta test the survey just prior to the 4th of July. It will take most of us a substantial amount of time to complete. Please budget at least an hour. Depending on how many fisheries you participate in and your fishing modes (kayak, shore, sportboat, freediving, private boat), carefully spending your sets of 100 pennies could take half a day or more.

Please stick with it. If anyone here has problems, plus post up and get help from someone who has made it through the survey process. The results will be critical toward protecting the crown jewels of ocean kayak fishing.

Keep in mind the bays do not face the same likelihood of closure as our ocean fisheries, and good luck.