VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR THE ECOTRUST SOUTH COAST MLPA SURVEY

[PAL]

WANTED – Salt-stained kayak anglers, the core of the hardcore, who want to stake a claim to their kayak fishing spots in the upcoming MLPA reserve process. Stand up and be counted; sign up for the Ecotrust MLPA socio-economic survey. www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup

WHAT: Sign-ups for the Ecotrust SoCal MLPA Survey.

WHEN: ASAP, 100+ core experienced kayak anglers.

WHY: To demonstrate our key use spots. List it or lose it! Don’t hold anything back, because the resulting data will be used to demonstrate where reserves can go while minimizing impacts on current user groups (that’s us).

OH YEAH? WHY SHOULD I TRUST THEM?: For argument’s sake, let’s say none of the survey participants listed La Jolla or Pt Dume or Dana Pt. Pro-closure forces can party down, because they’ll say “Look, we can close these areas and it won’t hurt the fishing community.”

WHO AGAIN?: The gnarliest, most experienced kayak anglers around, people who’ve been there and done that.

WHAT SHOULD SURVEY VOLUNTEERS EXPECT?: Survey volunteers MUST sign-up at www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup Some time later, Ecotrust will contact those people selected for the survey via email or telephone and provide a link to an online survey. That will consist of a series of questions and a exercise in spending 100 pennies at your key spots. They can go anywhere, including in closed areas or Federal waters (putting them in a closure area indicates you’ve already paid a price, so it’s not a waste).

NOTE – bays and harbors do not meet the MLPA’s scientific standards for a network of reserves, so they are at significantly reduced risk of large closures. If you fish bays, sure, spend some of your pennies there, but please spread the bulk of them on the ocean.

WHAT WAS THAT SIGN-UP AGAIN?:www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup Go there now!

HEY, WHAT IS THIS MLPA THING? I’VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK: The Marine Life Protection Act is a state law mandating creation of a network of marine reserves aka closures. There’s no fighting it – this thing is the law of the land and has the full backing of the governor and legislature. SoCal is up next, beginning right now. We can expect to lose from 10 to 20 percent of our total state waters. WHICH water is a key question, and why we are engaged in the process. Like your launch site? Participate in the process – Go to Meetings – Help the KFACA with the Coming Mountain of Documents – and soon Give Cash to fund KFACA MLPA Efforts.

I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS: Call Kayak Fishing Association of California director Paul Lebowitz at 858-254-3600 any time between 7 am and 10 pm. If I’m not fishing, I’ll answer or call you back soon.

[Handymansd]

Done...

[Billy V]

Done.

[Tman]

Don't know if I'm hard-core enough there Paul...

Bring on the survey...

[Dan]

Done...

Paul. Could you comment on this release from a couple of days ago?

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scproject.asp

Should we all nominate you?? Help us out on this one please.

[PAL]

Done...

Paul. Could you comment on this release from a couple of days ago?

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scproject.asp

Should we all nominate you?? Help us out on this one please.

Thanks Dan for your vote of confidence. The work we've done to this point has my name on the short list for a spot on the Regional Stakeholder's Group as the kayak fishing community representative. My nomination letter is in the works.

BUT - I'm looking for widespread help to get me there. In the next few days we'll have sample letters as well as names, email and physical addresses for letters of support. It is important we not give the state or any other user group an excuse to lock kayak anglers out of the process.

Thanks to everyone who has signed up for the Ecotrust Survey, and those who will in the near future. Our cooperation has won us important concesssions in the design and direction of the survey. At this point kayak anglers lead all other user groups in sign-ups. We should; we are the most vulnerable to poorly placed reserves.

Paul

[lambadmin]

Paul, I'm not sure if you're going to win The Post Of The Month, but you got the front page.

Thanks for all your hard work!!!

[dsafety]

I am new to kayak fishing and frankly, don't yet know where most of the best locations are. I would hate to think that my rookie status makes my desire to retain access less important.

Since I am new to this thing, maybe someone can explain it to me. Kayak fishers are about as green as it gets. Sure I burn some gas in my SUV driving to the launch site but after that, I have a nearly zero carbon footprint.

When I paddle out, (in my case peddle out), I am just buring fat and helping to keep myself out of the emergency room with a heart attack or one of the many other illnesses associated with our overweight society.

When I get on the water, I use no fuel except for what was in my recent breakfast. I burn only calories and leave behind only sweat. I catch my own bait and only use only what I need. If I am fortunate enough to catch something other than bait, I usually release it after saying hello and taking a picture. How can this activity be bad for our environment.

Rather than making our coastal waters off limits to people like me and you, maybe we should do more to encourage catch and release practices for recreational fishers. If we need to limit the catch, put the breaks on commercial fishing in the endangered locations.

What do you think?

Bob

[Matt]

Just signed up Paul, let me know where I can help and what to do!!!

[PAL]

I am new to kayak fishing and frankly, don't yet know where most of the best locations are. I would hate to think that my rookie status makes my desire to retain access less important.

Not at all Bob - your desire is every bit as important. And there's nothing keeping you from signing up, although as you say you don't know the best locations, maybe this is a time to give your survey spot to someone else. While there is no limit to the number of volunteers, the number of kayak anglers Ecotrust will survey will add up to 50 or 100 or so. That's not many to go on.

Experience and the skill it develops play more of a role on the waters accessed by a particular kayak angler than they do for boaters or shore and pier anglers. Many inexperineced kayak anglers stick to the bays or water in close proximity to launch sites until they gain confidence. As a matter of policy, the KFACA is committed to preserve the full spectrum of kayak fishing opportunities. Open ocean access is threatened much more so than sheltered water, hence the importance of motivating the most experienced among us.

I welcome further discussion of this issue.

Rather than making our coastal waters off limits to people like me and you, maybe we should do more to encourage catch and release practices for recreational fishers. If we need to limit the catch, put the breaks on commercial fishing in the endangered locations.

Bob, I think most of us feel that way. I do. However, the MLPA is not part of traditional fisheries management. It is a habitat protection plan, altogether separate, and something we must deal with as best we can. To me, that means participating in the process. If we walk away, we'll have our worst nightmares shoved down our throats.

BTW, you can be sure we're arguing the same points you bring up about a lighter footprint. You obviously care deeply; I hope we'll see you at a future workshop or meeting, giving polite but impassioned testimony.

[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.