f pondering the extinction of the California salmon fishery sounds dramatic, or premature, perhaps you’re not paying close enough attention.
Consider this: Even if struggling salmon do make a comeback from a disastrous combination of environmental conditions and problematic water management, the infrastructure and market that make a fishery viable, at least for the Monterey Bay fleet, might be too compromised to survive, let alone thrive.
Read MoreFisheries management is a complex business, and as fishermen often joke: ‘If you’re not at the table, you may be on the menu’. Fisher voices and knowledge throughout the management process are crucial to ensuring the overall outcome of fishing regulations are not only sustainable for the resource, but for local communities. Local fisher Valerie Faulk is now seeing that firsthand.
Read MoreOriginally from France, Gilbert is a passionate epicurean. He has called Northern California home for more than a decade now. His professional background is in high tech, where he has spent over 30 years focused on international strategy and partnership development.
Read MoreA seemingly glorious scene unfolded at K Dock in Monterey Harbor earlier this month.
Longtime local fishermen Mike Ricketts and Joe Lucido trundled ashore, their traps crawling with Dungeness crab pulled from Monterey Bay that morning.
Read MoreAn unprecedented underwater crisis has been unfolding along the California coast, including Monterey Bay.
The crisis is a massive population of purple sea urchins blanketing huge swaths of near-shore ocean floor. It’s a problem because they eat giant kelp from the roots up, destroying the underwater forests that are essential habitat for fish, invertebrates and marine mammals.
Read MoreSomething historic is happening for West Coast salmon, providing a splash of optimism amid a bleak salmon fishery moment that is similarly unprecedented.
That something is happening in and around the tributaries of the Klamath River in Oregon, just over the California border, a major water system that supports salmon abundance for fisheries as far south as Monterey Bay.
Read MoreIn their first two years of life, Dungeness crabs molt as many as six times a year.
It’s an incredible feat to do once, let alone a dozen times: Grow your own body armor—and new limbs when they might snap off—then scooch out of it through the back seam, leaving old gills, antennae, and mouthparts behind, and burying yourself in the sand while your new superhero suit hardens.
Bert Cutino was on his knees scrubbing the deck of his dad’s fishing boat on a Saturday morning when John Steinbeck stepped aboard.
Cutino, 13 at the time, didn’t recognize the guy, but the stranger stuck out as a non-Italian, non-Portuguese, non-Spaniard dock presence.
“This is embedded in my brain,” says Cutino, now 81.
The year was 1954, long before Cutino helped launch The Sardine Factory restaurant, before he helped develop a real estate dynasty among the graveyard of Cannery Row processing plants, before he cooked Monterey Bay abalone bisque at the White House, and before over and fishing became a compound word.
Read MoreSalmon smolts do amazing things. Full stop.
Even after 16 years studying salmon and similar species, partly through his role as director of the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project (MBSTP), Ben Harris still marvels at their dramatic feats.
“As they migrate from freshwater to the ocean, the smolt go through an amazing transformation.Their kidneys change! They go from seeking salt to being able to repel it! Their scales harden!” he says. “It’s a much, much bigger change than human puberty. It’s really quite amazing.”
He’s got a point.
Read MoreFact can be crazier than fiction. And that’s the case with a unique challenge facing West Coast fishermen and marine science experts alike.
That challenge comes to a crossroads with a Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting this month in San Diego, which involves potential new restrictions for reeling local fishermen.
More on that in a second. First the craziest part.
Read MoreFact can be crazier than fiction. And that’s the case with a unique challenge facing West Coast fishermen and marine science experts alike.
That challenge comes to a crossroads with a Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting this month in San Diego, which involves potential new restrictions for reeling local fishermen.
More on that in a second. First the craziest part.
Read MoreThe 2024 crab season was many things for area fishermen—a fleeting endeavor, a true lifeline, a preamble for more management decisions.
Now that it has ended south of the Sonoma-Mendocino county line—as of April 8—it’s a good time to look back at how it went, how current experimental permits keep it going, for some, and how potential regulatory changes will affect its future.
Read MoreAfter nearly two decades of bouncing around the US following a career in technology, and then banking, Chaps Poduri and his wife moved to Pacific Grove in 2016 to raise their family and live in the beautiful place they had always enjoyed visiting. Since then, he has become a complete convert to coastal living and has become a very active member in the community, committed to a prosperous and sustainable future.
Read MoreWhile uncertainty is inseparable from fishing, the mystery surrounding the future for West Coast salmon fishermen gives the uncertainty fresh intensity.
That, in turn, comes with complexity. As S.F Bay Area charter fishing boat captain Jared Davis puts it, completing a “fully encompassing dive into the challenges faced by the fishing industry would require an Encyclopedia Britannica-type collection of volumes.”
So let’s start with what we do know, in basic terms and more complicated frameworks, for better or for worse.
And finish with reasons for hope.
Read More***Special April 1 report***
The deep sea presents so many mind-bending creatures—and plenty of surprises—that maybe this shouldn’t be a shock. Still, it’s surprising to learn that one of the most famous and fearsome deep sea residents, the giant squid, is now working with Monterey Bay fishermen to clean up derelict gear.
Read MoreFISHERMEN - Are you looking for additional local markets to sell your catch directly to the public? If so, check out these opportunities for selling at Farmers Markets!
Read MoreDescribing the complexity of challenges facing local small boat fishermen can be a challenge in itself.
Local fishermen confront steep costs for permits, spiking diesel fuel and various offloading fees, while navigating Monterey Bay ports short on infrastructure like storage, ice machines and processing facilities.
Then there’s competitive disadvantages against big boat conglomerates, cheaper imports and aquaculture; threats from offshore wind development; sale prices artificially depressed by big corporate buyers; a target audience often unaware of (or unwilling) to try alternatives to salmon, shrimp and tuna; and the ongoing and intensifying shifts from warming oceans causing shifts in distribution and abundance of key species.
Read MoreWednesday, January 24th, 2024 was a special day for the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust (MBFT), as it marked the first distribution of donated seafood with our new partner, Second Harvest Food Bank (SHFB). As the Fisheries Trust’s sixth food relief partner, SHFB will expand the impact of the Community Seafood Program (CSP) to provide healthy, sustainably harvested seafood to those in need of food assistance, along with economic support to our local fishermen, food workers, and seafood businesses.
Read MoreThere’s something a little cosmic about Emily joining the Fisheries Trust as its new Programs and Communications Manager.
After all, Hess—who in her role oversees everything from the Community Seafood Program to the newsletter that might’ve led you here—has been drawn to Monterey Bay since she was a Utah native getting her first dose of the ocean visiting Pajaro Dunes as a kindergartener
Read MoreMonterey Bay’s ongoing closure has inspired some area fishers like Sea Harvest Moss Landing to source crab from partners in Newport, Oregon, where fewer whales roam and the season has opened.
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