Southern California independent sport fishing survey Quarterly Report No. 7 Item Type monograph Authors Wine, Vickie L. Publisher California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Resources Region Download date 24/09/2021 16:18:14 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/18116 Lemdins Marine Laborai-ori03 State of California P, 0. &rx 223 The Resources Agency Landing, Calif. 95C.:7 DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GM, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SPORT FISHING SURVEY QUARTERLY REPORT NO. 7 Vickie L. Wine MARINE RESOURCES Administrative Report No. 77-13 SOUTHEKN CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SPORT FISHING SURVEY -11 QUARTERLY REPORT NO. 7 by 2 / Vickie L. Wine - ABSTWCT During the January 1 - March 31, 1977 quarter, 28 launch ramps, hoists and boat rental locations were sampled 166 times. During the sample days 9,209 anglers and 496 divers were interviewed. They expended 61,347 effort hours and landed 22,454 fishes of 133 identified species. The ten most commonly landed species were: 1) white croaker, Gznyonemus Zineatus, 16%; 2) Pacific bonito, Sarda chiliensis, 7%; 3) blue rockfish, Sebastes mystinus, 5%; 4) olive rockfish, S. serranoides, 5%; 5) ocean whitefish, CauZoZatiZus princeps, 5%; 6) barred sand bass, Pa~a7,abrm nebuZifWer, 5%; 7) Pacific mackerel, Scornher japonicus, 3%; 8) bocaccio, Sehastes paucispinis, 3%; 9) kelp bass, ParaZabrm ~Zathratus,3%; and 10) copper rockfish, Sehastes cazc/~imns, 3%. -I/ Marine Resources Region, Administrative Report No. 77-13 July 1977. -2/ Marine Resources Region, California State Fisheries Laboratory, 350 Golden Shore, Long Beach, California 90802. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SPORT FISHING SURVEY QUARTERLY REPORT NO. 7 by Vickie L. Wine INTRODUCTION This is the second year of the Southern California Indpendent Sport Fishing Study conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service. The purposes of the study are to estimate effort levels expended by sport anglers and divers fishing from privately owned boats, to estimate the magnitude and species composition of their catch, and to determine the degree of sport fishermen's compliance with size limit regulations. This information is used to evaluate the impact of private boat sport fishermen on southern California's marine resources. OPERAT IONS The sampling plan consists of a program of random field sampling at the major launch ramps, hoists, and boat rental locations from San Diego to Santa Barbara Counties. Sampling is conducted on all weekends and holidays, and on randomly chosen weekdays in accordance with avail- able manpower. Field samplers remain at sampling locations from 1000 to 1800 hr, and an effort is made to interview all returning anglers and divers. Information on length of fishing trip, number of fishing poles used, and number of people angling or diving is gathered along with the identification arid enumeration of all fishes, molluscs, crabs, and lobsters in possession (no data are requested about species caught but not kept). An attempt is made to measure all species with legal size requirements. Eight other species are also measured to provide data for life history studies. Sampling sites are located in San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties. During the quarter we sampled 18 launch ramps, 5 boat hoj-sts, and 5 boat rental locations. In Santa Barbara County the hoist at Goleta was closed during January, and Gaviota's launch ramp was closed during the latter half of February. The launch ramp at Cabrillo Beach, Los Angeles County, remained closed until February due to the explosion of a nearby oil tanker. The re- modeling of Shelter Island's launch ramp in San Diego County was com- pleted in February, and the facility reopened. Due to lack of funds, sampling was curtailed during the winter months. Weekends were sampled in all counties, but weekdays were sampled only in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION During the January 1 - March 31, 1977 quarter, 28 launch ramps, hoists, and boat rental locations were sampled 166 times. During the sample days 9,209 anglers and 496 divers were interviewed. Thoy expended 58,802 angler-trip-hours and 2,545 diver-trip-hours -1/ , and landed 22,454 fishes of 133 identified species, and 1,358 unidentified filleted fishes (Table 1). Effort Unseasonably warm water temperatures during January and February resulted in the appearance of surface fishes which would not normally be available at this time of year. The presence of warm water species, accompanied by very mild weather conditions, resulted in an increase in angler effort in all counties sampled. -1/ The unit of effort is 1 hr of trip time per angler or diver. Adjustments are made for those using more than one fishing pole concurrently. January through March is the "hot" salmon fishing season in the Santa Barbara ar-ea. Effort levels there rose to 40% higher than the summertime levels, and 80% higher than the preceeding quarter's effort levels. In the four other counties sampled, effort levels ranged from 112 to 213 of the summertime levels. In contrast to angling effort, diving effort dropped off consider- ably. One reason for the decrease in activity was that the abalone season was closed from mid-January to mid-March, and when the season re- opened, a large section of coastline (from Palos Verdes Pt. in Los Angeles County to Dana Pt. in Orange County) was closed to both sport and commercial abalone fishing. Catch Anglers directed their efforts toward surface fishing rather than the deep water fishing that would normally take precedence at this time of year. Only 37% of the catch was composed of rockfishes, Sebastes spp., including 1,286 rockfishes landed in filleted form which made species identification doubtful. Samplers identified 133 species of fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans, of which 43 species accounted for 93% of the identified catch (Table 2). The remaining 7% was composed of 90 species. of fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans. The'ten most commonly landed species were: 1) white croaker, Genyonernus lineatus, 16%; 2) Pacific bonito, Sarda chiliensis, 7%; 3) blue rockfish, Sebastes mystinus, 5%; 4) olive rockfish, S. serranoides, 5%; 5) ocean whitefish, CauZoZatiZus princeps, 5%; 6) barred sand bass, Paralabrm nebuzifer, 5%; 7) Pacific mackerel, Scomber japonicus, 3%; 8) bocaccio, Sebastes paucispinis, 3%; 9) kelp bass, Paralabra clathratus, 3%; and 10) copper rockfish, Sebastes caurinus, 3%. Santa Barbara anglers landed mostly rockfishes.(63%), but the most frequently landed single species was Pacific mackerel. There was not much diving activity in this area, but the few divers who did go out brought back good catches of rock scallops, Hinnites mltirugosus. Diver? in Ventura County concentrated their efforts on rock scallops and California sheepheaci, PimeZometopon puZchm. Anglers landed rock- fishes, white croaker, kelp bass, and ocean whitefish. In Los Angeles County, 31% of the catch was coinposed of white croaker, 27% of rockfishes, and 15% of preferred game species (Pacific bonito; Pacific mackerel; bass, ParaZabraz spp.; and California halibut, ParaZichthys catifornieus). The Orange County catch was composed mainly of surface fishes (Table 3) such as Pacific bonito; bass; white croaker; halfmoon, MediaZuna caZiforniensis; and black surfperch, Embiotoca jccksoni. Divers brought in large numbers of rock scallops. In San Diego County, white croaker was the number one sport-caught fish, as it was in Los Angeles County. However, anglers also landed substantial catches of bass, California sheephead, Pacific mackerel, and ocean whitefish. The catch-per-unit-of-effort (CPUE) values for anglers ranged from 0.12 to 0.74 fish/angler-trip-hour (Table 4). The best catch successes were in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, where anglers averaged 0.55 and 0.47 fish/angler-trip-hour respectively. San Diego and Orange County anglers fared about the same as during the previous quarter: CPUE values were 0.34 and 0.28 respectively'. However, the biggest change was in Santa Barbara County. The average catch-per-unit-of-effort value plunged from 0.87 last quarter to 0.26 this quarter. This was due to the large number of hopeful but unsuccessful fishermen trolling for salmon, which greatly increased effort levels but did not raise the catch levels. Since diving activity was so low this quarter, CPUE values were not calculated because samples were too small for meaningful results. Length Frequencies Length frequency data were somewhat encouraging this quarter * (Table,5, Figures 1-4). For almost all species with size limit regula- tions, the percentage of legal sized fishes landed rose compared to last quarter. The three bass species averaged nearly 90% legals, and more than half the California halibut measured were longer than the minimum legal size. Only 5 of the 14 white seabass, and 8 of 19 California barracuda measured were legal size. Although the percentage of legal pink abalones, HaZiotis cormgata, taken dipped from 82 last quarter to 62 this quarter, in other abalone species the proportion of legal sized abalones remained very high. Of the 56 California spiny lobsters, PanuZCrus interruptus, measured only one was sub-legal. TABLE I. List of Species Sampled from Southern California :Private Boats from January through March 1977. Fishes Scientific name Common name No. sampled AZopias vuZpinus thresher shark Amphis tichus argentetis barred surfperch A; koeZzi calico surfperch Anisotremus davidsonii sargo Anop Zopoma fimbria sablefish