April 27th, 2024

Attendees: Dylan Fogg, Henry Hepp, Taylor Morgan, Ray Kennedy, Caleb Linz, Nathan Linz, Brian Aresco, Dan Mello, Jace Kennedy

Agenda:

Ray starts the meeting at 3:11PM

Agenda:

Ray Kennedy: Has been commercial fishing for 35 years, interim president of CLTFA, primarily fishes Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Island, based in SB
Dan Mello: Commercial fishing 34 years, primarily Avalon; Also works for Matson
Nathan Linz (Caleb’s brother): Just here to learn; Based in Avalon
Caleb Linz: Fishes Catalina; Buys all local 15,000lbs/season all local goes through his 2 restaurants; Based in Avalon
Ava Schulenberg: Currently completing grant writing program and will be able to get money towards our goals; Also works for CFSB and deckhands; Based in SB
Dylan Fogg: Henry’s deckhand (SB); Fell off a squid boat, survived
Jace Kennedy: Lobster buyer
Henry Hepp: 5th generation fisherman based in SB, fishes lobster and salmon, used to work for Ray for 2 seasons
Brian Aresco: From Carpinteria, fishes out of Ventura, has been commercial fishing for 15 years

Ray says the Dept. of fish and wildlife has no interest in domoic acid but when someone from Long Beach voluntarily submitted samples, it changed their mind and piqued their interest and they ended up closing a whole county 6-8 weeks (San Pedro)
Ray’s suggestion is never provide a sample because it will do you no good; You can only put yourself out of a job

Assemblymember Steve Bennett of Ojai CA recently introduced and subsequently shelved the AB2220 regarding gillnetting and observers
We dodged a bullet, for now
Henry says his whole family are gillnetters; He says there’s no pressure like there used to be, because the numbers are different than how it was in the 90s, and the territories were different; He says the seabass and halibut populations are immense right now

The areas they are proposing are not even kelp habitats anyway
It’s still a ways out but it’s possible that these proposed MPAs become reality
There’s 9 reserves on Catalina; You can only trap between the east end and west end on the backside (3 on the backside); There’s 5 permit holders on Catalina
Since 2014 when the water got warm, the numbers went down
MPAs were 2012
Trap limit was introduced ~2016

There’s a fisherman in SB who jump started this with Box Crab; It’s highly controversial
Dylan says his previous boss, Dick Ogg said they are failing their deployments on the North Coast and the only one who’s really willing to take the risk is this guy out of Santa Barbara; The implications are dangerous
The gear is really expensive
There are electromagnetic implications of the pop-up gear technology as well
There aren’t a lot organizations that are going to speak up against this except for us and PCFFA

There has not been any kind of comprehensive environmental impact report on the implications of offshore wind
When you introduce a non-native electromagnetic force, you will see a detrimental impact on whales and other organisms
Henry says a whole oil drum goes into 1 turbine, so when it spills what kind of a nightmare will that be

We could get pushed a mile off the beach which would be bad
Harvesting tags
Not as much of a problem at the islands
Dan says he doesn’t understand why there’s so much gear on the beach because even if something is thrashed, you can still use a frame and regardless it’s your responsibility to clean it up; Brian agrees and says each trap is at least $140 so it’s worth it to try and retrieve it
Ray says if you abandon a trap within 500ft of the water, it still is a violation; Can’t leave a trap at a launch ramp, etc.
Ray says they are trying to get permits down to 70 from 140: ~20 are non-transferrable so those will dissolve, the rest will be left to violations
Dan says return the tags, everyone agrees that’s a good idea; When you turn in the affidavit, there’s a guy that’s contracted with fish and wildlife who goes up and down the coast in SB and looks for that trap based on the location information on the affidavit, he also reports whose trap that is and the number

There is a grant opportunity through the University of William and Mary that Ava is going to submit (due 5/30)

Dan says fish and game doesn’t want them fishing at night; Dan says in some areas, if you don’t pull it before 6AM, the sheephead will kill everything; By 8AM there’s nothing in the trap because the Sheephead eat so much of the lobster that they fall through the mesh

With finfish, you can only take 2000 lbs a month so at the end of a month and the beginning of the next month you can go and get 4000 lbs, but that’s not lucrative; It doesn’t put enough hurt on the sheephead (Calicos, Cabazon, and Garibaldis are bad too they will pick the legs off and eat the lobster)
Look into extensions on night fishing towards dawn even for 2-4hrs; They stop crawling at midnight

The bigger females are fishing a lot of eggs and larvae (~1-200,000)
Ray suggests a possible 5 ¼ minimum gauge on females
Caleb says the hoopnetters get the big females
Caleb says the Long Beach aquarium has some large lobster in there and is curious what their breeding protocol is
Our legal minimum lobster are about 7 years old

If you’re a member, we will try to find you the cheapest wire, buoys, zincs, and line (buy in bulk)
Jace does bulk pricing with wire and can look into this
Ava will look into bulk deals as a perk for members

Ray adjourns meeting at 4:46PM