Sea of Cortez flooding with new life again

[cortez marine]

In Baja we are suffering a bloom of passer angels like I have never seen.

And this follows 2 consecutive years when more fish were taken then ever in our history.

This glut of fish would ruin the market if for the constant and regular permit closures and delays ....

It is clear that in the Baja experiment... market extraction is dwarfed by natural forces at work in nature.

The confluence of a good calm summer, warm currents at the peak of spawning and availability of food as juveniles begin to grow create the recipe for a bloom where m... i...l... l ...i... o... n... s of fish suddenly survive and come into existance.

Clarions and cortez angels ride along on this good news and suddenly we are humbled before the thought that we mattered and had more significant impact.
Obviously a non habitat destroying methodologys allow for natures alchemy to kick in and flood the seas with color and life again.
Steve

 

[JHemdal]

Steve,

The problem is that what is good for the goose is bad for the gander. While passer populations may be on an uptick in Baja, that means then, that comparable temperate water species are getting hammered in the Galapagos. I was there in 1998, post El Nino - huge numbers of passers and rock wrasse but very few endemic species. In 2006, things had swung back, but very few temperate corals had regrown, and the penguins were very scarce. The El Ninos are just too severe and too close together.

Jay

 

[cortez marine]

True,
But either way, collecting was a non issue. Los Ninos were.
We have a big...long dead coral reef as well in the mid gulf.
Zero, pollution, erosion, crowbar, cyanide, etc. etc.
Was once extra warm....then a few decades normal.

IF such swings of nature are noticed in passing by the wrong "reporter".....then the wrong diagnosis will get issued.
Shallow, "pop" reportage and environmentalism make it very difficult for sincere people to see thru the variables like the Cassandra-like observer of the prior thread.
People will get it wrong on an industrial scale I fear.
Steve

 

[DaveP]

I've been to Baja a few times as well as Puerto Vallarta and there are TONS of Passers. I thought collection was 100% restricted except for a few Clarions in recent years. Am I mistaken?

 

[cortez marine]

If there are tons of passers, why restrict?
And they dont.

Quotas are granted based on population surveys in 5 % of the passers range.
Of the quotas granted in this range.... only about 25% are used.
This is because the market puts the brakes on excess production long before the quotas are reached.
The forces of nature grant a glut of millions in a good year while the quotas use up about 3,000 .
Shhh...Don't tell anyone.
There is a need [and an industry] based on the premise that the sky is falling and the oceans are all dying.
I live in the middle of this and deal regularly with the practictioners of ecological fiction and mismanagement.
Much attention is paid to this tiniest of industry while the tuna, grouper, snapper, scallop, lobster and the turtles take a beating.

Divers imported from the poorer states die every year overcollecting the quota of scallops in deep water for example, but we get far more attention....and regulation.
Steve