Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 3
. San Francisco Area Catch: Landings in Pounds
1996
2000
2004
2008
Anchovy, Northern
231,772
256,796
23
91
Crab, Dungeness
10,049,844
794,394
4,042,902
1,872,916
Halibut, California
353,770
284,389
534,265
200,985
Herring, Pacific
10,472,969
7,276,197
2,974,318
1,379,997
Salmon, Chinook
1,359,687
1,952,945
2,659,737
fishery closed
Sardines, Pacific
no data
996
815,938
1,102,104
Shrimp, Bay
113,312
82,816
66,424
45,873
Shrimp, Brine
979,832
890,703
843,388
no data
Source:
California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Region, Table 10.
crab are still surviving in the twenty-first century, though the salmon fish-
ers are just barely hanging on. Annual crab landings reached a high of
more than four million pounds in 2004, but salmon populations hit such
abysmal lows in 2008 and 2009 that the Pacific Fishery Management
Council banned commercial fishing entirely for both seasons. Even sport
fishermen in Central Valley rivers were given a zero-bag limit. In the years
ahead, the council hopes the ban will yield a recovery of sorts.
The bay's herring industry, meanwhile, offers a sense of what it takes to
sustain a modern-day urban fishery. To catch these slim fish, local fishers
are required to get a license and a permit from the California Department
of Fish and Game, and limit themselves to a quota. The state sets this
quota based on intensive field work by boat and from shore, as well as lab
work on the fish specimens themselves—work that has endured for more
than 30 years. Each year's quota is based on the previous year's “spawning”
biomass, among other things. Just how many herring come to the bay to
spawn from one year to the next depends on the age and number of her-
ring documented in prior years, as well as on ocean conditions offshore.
During El Niño years, when waters in the Gulf of the Farallones warmed
significantly, the herring—a coldwater fish—temporarily disappeared.
More recently, the fishery has teetered on the brink of closure.
State biologists like Ken Oda begin the research work needed to set
each year's quota in October, committing themselves to a biomass assess-
ment process that can last up to six months, across the long herring
spawning season. After climbing aboard the research vessel
Tr iaki s
(named after the Latin genus for Leopard Shark), the state's crew begins
hunting up and down the bay, gazing at the screen of an echosounder
bouncing sound waves off the bay bottom. When the sound waves get
deep enough to bounce off the fish, the visuals look first like a few specks
at 40 feet, or “salt and pepper,” says Oda, and deeper down like a solid
