A Historical Review of Fisheries Statistics and Environmental and Societal Influences Off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, California
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STULL ET AL. : PALOS VERDES SPORT AND COMMERCIAL FISHERY CalCOFI Rep., Vol. XXVIII, 1987 A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF FISHERIES STATISTICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIETAL INFLUENCES OFF THE PALOS VERDES PENINSULA, CALIFORNIA JANET K. STULL, KELLY A. DRYDEN PAUL A. GREGORY Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts California Department of Fish and Game P.O. Box 4998 245 West Broadway Whittier. California 90607 Long Beach, California 90802 ABSTRACT peracion ambiental significativa y puede estar aso- A synopsis of partyboat and commercial fish and ciado con una reducci6n en la contaminacion del invertebrate catches is presented for the Palos medio ambiente marino costero. Verdes region. Fifty years (1936-85) of partyboat catch, in numbers of fish and angler effort, and 15 INTRODUCTION years (1969-83) of commercial landings, in Our goals were to summarize long-term fish and pounds, are reviewed. Several hypotheses are invertebrate catch statistics gathered by the Cali- proposed to explain fluctuations in partyboat fornia Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) for (commercial passenger fishing vessel) and com- the Palos Verdes Peninsula, to infer relative fish mercial fishery catches. Where possible, compari- abundance and human consumption rates, and, sons are drawn to relate catch information to envi- where possible, to better understand influences ronmental and societal influences. This report from natural and human environmental perturba- documents trends in historical resource use and tions. We examined total catches and common and fish consumption patterns, and is useful for re- economically important species, in addition to spe- gional fisheries management. The status of several cies with reported elevated body burdens of con- species has improved since the early to mid-1970s. taminants such as DDT and PCBs. This correlates with other findings of noteworthy CDFG fish catch data from blocks 719 and 720 environmental recovery and may be associated (Figure 1) were analyzed; together they encom- with reduced contamination of the coastal marine passed the entire Palos Verdes Peninsula, a small environment. portion of southern Santa Monica Bay, and north- ern San Pedro Bay. Block 719 covers a smaller ma- RESUMEN rine area, mostly over the shelf, whereas much of Una sinopsis de la pesca de peces y mariscos por block 720 is above deep canyon and channel barcos comerciales y de recreo es presentada para waters. Block 719 includes the historically impor- la region de Palos Verdes. Las capturas de las em- tant Horseshoe Kelp Bed in San Pedro Bay (Schott barcaciones de recreo (embarcaciones comerciales 1976). The Los Angeles County Sanitation Dis- dedicadas a la pesca hecha por pasajeros) recopi- tricts' submarine outfall system is located at the ladas durante 50 anos (1936-85), en cuanto a nu- junction of blocks 719 and 720. In this analysis, mer0 de peces y esfuerzo, asi como 10s desem- Palos Verdes total catch refers to blocks 719 and barques comerciales, en libras, recopilados 720 combined. durante 15 afios han sido estudiados. Varias hipo- The coastline of the Palos Verdes Peninsula is tesis han sido propuestas para explicar las fluctua- mainly rocky. Offshore sediments vary from grav- ciones observadas en las capturas por embarca- els to silt. Sediment within the blocks is as variable ciones de recreo y de pesca comercial. Las capturas as that between blocks. Around the outfall, sedi- han sido comparades con factores ambientales y ments are very silty as a result of the deposition of sociales en 10s casos disponibles. Este informe fine-grained effluent particulates. Sediments to the presenta tendencias, a travks del tiempo, en el us0 east of 719 and west of 720 are also silty. The south- de 10s recursos y en 10s patrones de consumo de western section of block 719 is sandy. Coarse sands pescado y es de gran utilidad para la administra- are found near the shore from southern Santa cion pesquera regional. Los desembarques de vari- Monica Bay to the outfall area, grading into finer as especies han aumentado desde principios a me- sand and silt offshore (Uchupi and Gaal 1963). diados de 10s anos 70. Este aumento presenta Gorsline and Grant (1972) further detail sediment cierta relacion con otros indicadores de una recu- textural patterns and hydrography. Sediment con- taminant burdens vary with distance (from input 'Pound and short ton usage was approved in order to allow direct comparisons sources such as the wastewater outfalls or the har- to historic, statewide California Department of Fish and Game catch data. bor) and with time (1975-85 levels are substan- [Manuscript rcccivcd February 2, 1YX7.1 tially lower than the previous decade; Stull and 135 STULL ET AL.: PALOS VERDES SPORT AND COMMERCIAL FISHERY CalCOFI Rep., Vol. XXVIII, 1987 1 18O 40’ 1180 20’ 1180 TABLE 1 Fish and Shellfish Species Analyzed in Palos Verdes 340 Catch Records Common name Scientific name Northern anchovy Engraulis mordax 33O 50’ California scorpionfish Scorpaena guttata Rockfish complex Sebastes spp. Lingcod Ophiodon elongatus Kelp-sand bass complex Paralabrax spp. Ocean whitefish Caulolatilus princeps 33O 40’ Yellowtail Seriola lalandei White seabass Atractoscion nobilis White croaker Genyonemus lineatus California (or Pacific) barracuda Sphyraena argentea 33O 30’ California sheephead Semicossyphus pulcher San Pedro Easi Pacific (or chub) mackerel Scomber japonicus Pacific bonito Sarda chiliensis California halibut Paralichthys californicus Figure 1. Study area and catch blocks off Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los An- geles County, California. Red sea urchin Strongylocentrotus franciscanus Purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus Rock crab Cancer spp. Baird 1985; Stull et al. 1986a, b). Moreover, avail- Market squid Loligo opalescens able fish habitats (e.g., kelp distribution) have fluc- California spiny lobster Panulirus interruptus tuated markedly over the past 50 years (State Water Resources Control Board 1964; Meistrell and Montagne 1983; Wilson et al. 1980; Wilson and welling index, rainfall, extreme wave episodes, McPeak 1983; Wilson and Togstad 1983). water transparency (by Secchi disk), and waste- A number of environmental factors, both natu- water mass emission rate (MER) of suspended sol- ral and societal, which potentially affect fisheries ids, DDT, and chromium. The importance of these will be briefly discussed. Natural events such as and other recognized or potential influences (re- temperature fluctuations, upwelling, storms, rain- viewed from the literature) are alluded to in the fall and runoff, and attendant alterations in habitat individual species summaries. or productivity will be addressed, and some socie- Fisheries Data tal impacts such as environmental contamination, The California Department of Fish and Game dumping, fishing practice, and economic forces (CDFG) gathered data from personal surveys, will be reviewed. commercial catch landing receipts, and required Data on many potentially relevant factors affect- partyboat catch logs (Cal. Dept. Fish and Game ing fish catches were not available. Selective and 1952; Heimann and Carlisle 1970; Young 1969). increasingly efficient fishing (and changes over Species discussed in this report (ordered phylo- time), fish migration, weather and ocean condi- genetically in Table 1) were selected based on catch tions, and inaccurate or inconsistent data collec- record, economic importance, and potential signif- tion may skew results. The age or size of fish caught icance to public health. Species importance varies was generally unavailable. Partyboat catches do with habitat and catch method. Shellfish contribute not represent the total sport fishery, since many only 0.02% to partyboat totals but form 7% of anglers fish from private boats, piers, and the commercial landings. shoreline. Because of the many environmental and societal Partyboat data. Data from CDFG’s computer variables influencing fish catches, we cannot over- printouts of partyboat catch (number of fish), emphasize the tenuous nature of any suggested 1936-85 (excluding 1941-46 because partyboat cause-effect relationships made herein. fishing was suspended during World War 11), were entered into computer files by month, year, block, METHODS and species. Monthly data were available for 1936- 40 and 1947-78; we used annual data from 1956 Environmental Factors through 1985. Data were analyzed by species and To better visualize the relationships between counts. The partyboat data included 13 of the 17 possible causes of variation in fish catches, we plot- target fish species. ted the following physical factors, recorded from Although catch statistics do reflect the consump- the 1960s to 1985: water temperature at 10 m, up- tion of marine fish, they rarely provide a direct 136 STULL ET AL.: PALOS VERDES SPORT AND COMMERCIAL FISHERY CalCOFI Rep., Vol. XXVIII, 1987 measure of fish abundance. An important influ- 12,000- NO. ANGLERS, ence on catch is the amount of effort expended. In (Calculated) this paper, partyboat fishing effort is the number g 10,000- ----- NO. ANGLERS a (Measured. Post- 1960) of anglers carried each year. Since the partyboat 0 ob 8,000- ANGLER DAYS fishery in the Palos Verdes area rarely targets on (Measured, Pre- 196 1) one species, only the total catch per total anglers 6,000- can be considered to be catch per unit of effort a- (CPUE) in the strict sense. Examining the catch of 5 4,000- any one species or species complex per angler re- L\ veals, at best, a measure of relative abundance be- a 2,000- # tween species; it does not take into account how L- much effort during the year could possibly have O I I I I I I I 1 taken that species. Angler effort was recorded differently over the years. Before 1962, one angler day was recorded if the angler went on an 8-hour trip, but half an an- gler day was recorded for a 4-hour trip. In 1960 and 1961, angler days and number of anglers were re- corded. Number of anglers remained the effort sta- Natural Events tistic from 1962 on. In order to standardize the Temperature changes affect community struc- effort, we calculated 1960-61 conversion ratios ture, reproductive success, and food and habitat that included both angler days and number of an- availability.