GLASGOW, Scotland — Scientists have long known that commercial fishing affects deep-water fish numbers, but its effects appear to be felt twice as deep as previously thought.

Dr David Bailey of the University of Glasgow, who led the study – published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B – said, “Commercial fishing may have wider effects than anyone previously thought, affecting fish which we assumed were safely beyond the range of fishing boats. We were extremely surprised by this result and believe that it has important implications for how we manage the oceans.”

They unexpectedly found that deep-sea fish numbers down to 2500 metres – a kilometre below the deepest reach of fishing trawlers – were lower in the later 1997 to 2002 period. Not only this, but target species and non-target species were both affected and in much deeper parts of the ocean. Numbers of one species of eel has dropped by half. Most deep-water trawlers harvest down to 1600 metres.

See link below for more:

http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=32654780191

June 2, 2009

Contact:  Patrick Foy, Department of Fish and Game, (916) 651-2084
Ed Hazel, Monterey County District Attorney’s Office,
(831) 755-5070

Poachers Threaten Monterey’s Endangered Black Abalone

California game wardens recently made two new arrests in a series of
black abalone poaching cases in Monterey County. Jerry Jones, 37, of
Monterey, and Terry Callahan, 47, of Seaside were arrested by the
Department of Fish and Game (DFG) on May 13 after being found in
possession of 51 black abalone from Point Lobos State Park. Poaching
charges against the two men are pending.

Commercial fishing for black abalone was banned in 1993. According to
Fish and Game Code Section 5521.5(b), possession of 12 or more abalone
is suitable evidence that the individual in possession intends to use
the abalone for commercial purposes. Additionally, on February 13 of
this year, black abalone were formally granted endangered status by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries
Service.

Despite the federally endangered status of the abalone, said Lt. Don
Kelly of DFG’s Law Enforcement Division, wardens are seeing poaching
operations on a much greater scale than in the past. “Poachers are
taking in excess of 90 or 100 abalone at times,” Kelly said.
“Amazingly, many of these poachers have previous convictions. These
criminals are knowingly breaking the law.”

Monterey County abalone have long been declining in number due to a
bacterial condition called wasting disease, as well as a historical
precedent of overfishing in the area. But today, poaching is the
greatest threat to the black abalone population. The animals typically
sell for $50 to $100 each on the black market.

In addition to the abalone taken and killed for sale, others are
mortally injured by knives and screwdrivers in failed attempts to pry
them off the rocks. Whenever possible, wardens return confiscated
abalone to the waters where they were taken, but often, the injuries
prove to be fatal.

In addition to the illegal operation discovered on May 13, other
notably large cases include:

●       November 2008: Hoa Van Pham, 45, of Moss Landing, and Ty Van
Lieu, 54, of Marina were found in possession of 66 black abalone that
had been taken from a cove in southern Monterey County. Lieu had
previously been found guilty of poaching abalone for commercial purposes
in 2002 and 2005, and was arrested for another abalone violation in
1996. Pham had three prior poaching convictions, two in 2000 and one in
1998, specifically related to taking of marine life from a marine
protected area. Both subjects pled guilty to the charges. Pham was
sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years probation and a $25,000 fine,
while Lieu was sentenced to 90 days in jail, three years probation, a
$25,000 fine and a lifetime commercial fishing license revocation.

●       February 18, 2008: Haeng Ju Shin, 42, of Cupertino, was found by
a California State Park Ranger to be in possession of 18 abalone, 69
mussels, four limpets, three turban snails, one sea urchin and one kelp
snail. She was arrested on charges of unlawfully taking abalone and
marine invertebrates from a marine conservation area. Shin admitted
using a knife to take the marine animals. She was fined $15,000, $7,500
of which was suspended.

●       January 2008: Tony V. Le, 20, of Castroville and Jonathan
Conner, 22, of Salinas, pled guilty to charges of possessing 119 black
abalone and three red abalone. During the investigation Conner told
authorities he could make $3,000 in two months by poaching. Le was
sentenced to five days in jail and three years probation and was fined
$15,000. Conner was placed on probation for four years, fined $15,000
and ordered to stay away from Soberantes Point where the crime was
committed.

●       May 2007: San Mateo residents Robert Ji, 29, Jennifer Ji, 19,
Jong Duk Yoo, 55,  Jong Bae Yoo, 67, and Jong Nan Yoo, 50, were arrested
for poaching 95 black abalone from a cove in Monterey County. Robert Ji,
Jong Duk Yoo, Jong Bae Yoo and Jong Nan Yoo each plead guilty to
poaching charges and were placed on three years probation and fined
$15,000 each. Charges against Jennifer Ji were dropped.

Kelly said that the continuing arrest and prosecution of poachers is
key to preventing the extinction of these endangered animals. “It’s
the highest priority of our wardens in this area,” he said. “If this
problem is left unchecked, Monterey’s black abalone resource will
disappear forever.”

Citizens who witness the poaching of abalone or any related offenses
are asked to call the DFG 24-hour CalTIP line at (888) 334-2258.

####
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A robotic vehicle named Nereus has made the deepest ocean dive ever – 6.8 miles (10,902 meters), a team of scientists and engineers reported yesterday. At this depth, Nereus was able to explore the Challenger Deep – the ocean’s lowest point, located in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

Nereus took the plunge Sunday. It was the first exploration of the Marina Trench since 1998.

“Much of the ocean’s depths remain unexplored,” said Julie Morris, director of the National Science Foundation‘s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the project. “Ocean scientists now have a unique tool to gather images, data and samples from everywhere in the oceans, rather than those parts shallower than 6,500 meters (4 miles). With its innovative technology, Nereus allows us to study and understand previously inaccessible ocean regions.”

Nereus is a new type of ocean vehicle, called a hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV). It is controlled by scientists aboard a surface ship via a fiber-optic tether. In addition to being able to dive deep, Nereus can also switch to a free swimming mode.

“The team is pleased that Nereus has been successful in reaching the very bottom of the ocean to return imagery and samples from such a hostile world” said Andy Bowen, project manager and principal developer of Nereus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “With a robot like Nereus we can now explore anywhere in the ocean. The trenches are virtually unexplored, and Nereus will enable new discoveries there.”

Nereus has a lightweight tethering system. A traditional system uses steel-reinforced cable made of copper that powers a vehicle, and optical fibers that enable information to be passed between the ship and the vehicle. But if such a cable were used to reach the Mariana Trench, it would snap under its own weight before it traveled that deep.

To solve the problem, the Nereus team adapted fiber-optic technology developed by the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific to carry real-time video and other data between the Nereus and the surface crew. Close to the diameter of a human hair and with a breaking strength of only 8 pounds, the tether is composed of glass fiber with a very thin protective jacket of plastic.

WHOI engineers also developed a hydraulically operated, lightweight robotic manipulator arm that could operate under intense pressure.

Overall, the deep-diving vehicle weighs nearly 3 tons in air and is about 14 feet (4.25 meters) long and about 8 feet (2.3 meters) wide. It is powered by more than 4,000 lithium-ion batteries.

During its dive to the Challenger Deep, Nereus spent more than 10 hours on the bottom. It sent live video back to the ship through its fiber-optic tether and collected biological and geological samples with its manipulator arm.

“The samples collected by the vehicle include sediment from the tectonic plates that meet at the trench and, for the first time, rocks from deep exposures of the Earth’s crust close to mantle depths south of the Challenger Deep,” said geologist Patty Fryer of the University of Hawaii, who also went on the expedition. “We will know the full story once shore-based analyses are completed back in the laboratory this summer. We can integrate them with the new mapping data to tell a story of plate collision in greater detail than ever before accomplished in the world’s oceans.”

Nereus was also funded by the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Russell Family Foundation and WHOI.

On Saturday, May 30, 2009,  a team of 18 REEF volunteer divers completed a nearly week-long series of marine life surveys covering 9 dive locations up and down the coast of Monterey and Carmel, under the supervision of  REEF Director of Science, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens and Dr. Steve Lonhart,  Senior Scientist, Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The pace was sometimes grueling: 2 dives a day for 5 days in a row, with the 3 dives on the 3rd day, but the rewards were well worth the effort: with over 55 separate species of fish and invertebrates identified and counted, including some fish species rarely found in these areas, including Bococcio, Stripefin Ronquils and Rainbow Surfperch, to name just a few.

Spaces on the boat ‘Cypress Sea’ were paid for  by a science grant to REEF and the volunteers worked with energy and enthusiasm in making the 2 dives per day up and down the coast of Monterey and Carmel, including sites such as: ‘Mobo/Lobo’ [Monastery Beach/North Pt Lobos Wall], Lobos Rocks, Malpaso Creek South, Outer and Inner Pinnacles, the ‘Butterfly House’ and Dali’s Wall.

Each dive team used a technique known in REEF  as the ‘Roving Diver’ method, in which  each team surveys an area within a roughly 300 ft radius of the entry point, in this case a dive boat, and notes the presence of various species of fish and/or invertebrate on their REEF data sheet.

For fish and individually identifiable invertebrates, such as sea urchins or abalone, the animals are counted as: 1 (Single], 2-10 (Few), many (11-100)  and abundant (>100).

Some species of sponges are not readily ‘countable’ as individuals and are therefore listed as ‘Present’ on the REEF data sheets.

At the end of each day, the volunteers attended an ‘After Action Report’ meeting, in which problems  or issues with species identfication and/or the data collected were ‘hashed out’ with the resident marine life experts, Dr. Pattengill-Semmens and Dr. Steve Lonhart,  and later, the volunteers entered their data online in the REEF.org online database set up for this purpose.

Speaking personally, the experience was both fun and rewarding and served to reinforce already acquired knowledge of Pacific Coast marine life fish and invertebrates, as well as provided the opportunity to contribute to an on-going scientific database, being maintained by REEF.org.

For more information on how REEF.org utilizes and trains volunteer ‘citizen scientists,’ please see:

http://www.reef.org/programs/volunteersurvey#TheSurveyMethod

Date: 5-29-09

Locations: Lobos Rocks/Malpaso Creek South

Times: 10 am/12:21 pm

Dive Lengths: 38 mins/40 mins

Bottom Temps: 50 F/50 F

Max Depths: 96 ft/69 ft.

Marine Life Surveyed: Invertebrates: Northern Palm [Pterygophora californica], Masking crabs, White Spotted Anemones, Giant Green Anemones, Orange Cup Coral, 2 Sunflower Stars, Orange Puffballs, Bat Stars, Leather Stars, Cobalt Sponge, Red Sponge, Red Turban Snails, Coonstripe Shrimp,

Surface shots: see Facebook…..

Remarks:

Dive #1: Lobos Rocks

This was a superb dive near 2 big rocks which protruded up from the bottom off a rocky and misty shoreline about 90 mins South of Monterey.

There were seals and sea lions frolicking about on the surface, although we never saw them down below.

Barb had brought the Hi Def video cam, so had that to juggle in addition to her REEF survey to do, which is certainly more multi-tasking than  I would want to take on.

We dropped down onto a submerged rocky ridge line, covered in Pterygophora and Macrocystis and made our way down to the bottom at around 100 ft.

The walls of the ridge were rich with marine colorful marine life, both invertebrates [listed above] as well as numerous species of Rockfish. Barb has been doing fish and I’ve been doing inverts on this trip.

We made our way down between two giant rocky cliff-faces until the space between them was only a yard and on the sandy bottom at 96 ft, I could make out two gorgeous Sunflower Stars: one on the bottom and one wedged over on the wall.

I made my way down into the narrow crevice and signaled Barb with my light to come over to get them on film.

We spent a few minutes here filming these magnificent sea stars, before moving back up the crevice to the top of the giant rock faces, back into the Pterygophora, where she did some more filming and recording of Rockfish on her slate and I got some good data on Brittle Stars and Purple Hydrocoral.

The Giant Green Anemones here were enormous: the size of dinner plates.

Dive #2: Mal Paso Creek South

This was a new site for REEF.org and we ended up cruising down to a sandy bottom interspersed between  3 huge boulders on the bottom, the size of houses.

It was covered in thick Pterygophora and provided a home to numerous Blue Rockfish and various inverts hiding among the fronds at the bottom, which included tiny Red Turban snails. Very unusual site.

Anyway, it’s been a long day and we’ve had to enter all this data into the REEF.org online database, so I’m going to close it here.

One more day to go!

Dive safe, everyone……..

Mikey

Date:

Location: Monastery Beach/Carmel Canyon and the Inner Ocean Pinnacles

Times: 10:17 am/12:32 pm

Dive Lengths: 36 mins/33 mins

Viz: 30-40 ft.

Dive Type: Charter

Purpose: Conduct REEF.org Marine Life Surveys

Marine Life Observed [Inverts]: Purple Hydrocoral, Northern Staghorn, Colbalt Sponge, Red Volcano Sponge, Brittle Stars, Bat Stars, Giant Kelp, Southern Sea Palm, Masking Crabs, Feather Duster Worms

Surface Shots from Boat: see Facebook

Remarks:

OK, yesterday I lied: today’s dive report is going to be the shortest you’ll ever see from me, unless tomorrow’s is even shorter because we have a long day ahead of us: 3 surveys instead of one and we’re pretty tired from a day of diving followed by more Marine Life ID classes, followed by entering all the data we collected today online.

Dive #1: Monastery Beach, Carmel Canyon

This has been a dive I’ve always wanted to do [Carmel Canyon], but never wanted to have to deal with all the legendary hazards of entering and exiting Monastery Beach [steeply sloping beach, large, slippery grains of sand and treacherous surf], so when Capt. Phil suggested we do it, I was ecstatic.

We anchored just South of Monastery Beach [and you can even see the Monastery perched above the beach]….actually, between South Monastery Beach and North of Whaler’s Cove, Pt Lobos.

Below the surface, it was just as all the guidebook describe it: a gently sloping drop, covered in giant boulders, which in turn are covered by Northern Palm and Giant Kelp and an abundance of marine life—see above.

The drop is so gradual, you don’t realize you are deep until you are deep—does that make sense?

We did part of our surveys below 100 ft., not always a good idea if you want unbiased data, but the Science Director, Christy Semmens, didn’t seem to have a problem with it when I told her.

Excellent dive!

Dive #2: Inner Ocean Pinnacles

The second marine life survey was at a site called ‘Inner Ocean Pinnacles’ and also provided an environment rich with marine life atop giant pinnacles which rose from the bottom over 100 ft. below us and were covered with Sea Palm and Giant Kelp.

One critter in both sites we noticed that we don’t see much [or, I don’t ever notice] in San Diego was the Feather Duster Worm, which look exactly like the name implies.

Great day of diving with a lot more ahead for the rest of the week—they are really making us ‘sing for our supper’ [free boat tickets paid for by a science grant]!

Dive safe, everyone……..