Steve Merlo: Help to make sure DFG leaves aquaculture businesses alone
| Thursday, Jul 14 2011 06:52 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jul 14 2011 07:31 PM
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Candy Merlo
Remember back thirty years or so when the California Department of Fish and Game planted rainbow trout weighing four-to-the-pound in our lakes and streams? The 4- to 8-inch fish were just tiny little things, barely able to bend a rod and not having much to give in the way of edible flesh. The state put-and-take program worked okay for numbers, but most anglers wanted something bigger to stretch their lines and fill their bellies. They finally got it when private enterprise found a way to go one better than the DFG.
Kern County sportsmen are used to catching decent-sized planted trout and catfish. An average stocked trout from one of the private farms where the county buys fish averages around 13 inches and usually more. Case in point, the Buena Vista Lake trout and catfish programs where fish over 20-pounds are commonly planted-and caught.
Up at Isabella Lake, the Chamber of Commerce raises tons of 11-15-inch rainbows in the lake proper to be released at Derby time, and huge plants of larger, privately grown, pink-meat Alpers Rainbows sag stringers throughout the summer months. At the same time, statewide supermarkets are able to sell catfish, trout and salmon at very reasonable prices to consumers.
These fish are the products of privately owned fish farms, where, so far, state government intervention into their businesses has been minimal. The results of private versus governmental successes in the fish farming operations is obvious-the fish simply are more affordable, larger and cost less than anything our money-strapped state can grow on its own.
Well, our illustrious DFG now wants to put an end to all those great, hard-fighting, privately raised fish by shutting down the fish farms where they were raised through unneeded and unwanted regulations. By charging for expensive inspections, monitoring and permitting to prevent the so-called spread of unwanted DNA into our native species, the DFG wants to take unwarranted control of fish farmers' lives and ponds. This action will all but shut down the private fishery sector because of increased costs to their businesses and ultimately their already satisfied customers.
Most of these businesses have been open a long time; some for more than 80 years. They never seemed to cause any problems until 2010, when the DFG got its rear end handed to it in a stupid lawsuit demanding the DFG stop planting trout in a host of lakes and streams because of environmental concerns over specie purity. The resulting lunacy of a totally unproven and unscientific bench ruling against the DFG nearly killed many small, fishery-dependent communities like Isabella and Kernville, including the jobs even remotely related to angling in those areas.
Now, because the DFG lost the suit demanding a cleanup of its own hatchery policies, it now wants to force its "authority" onto private enterprise, even though the original court finding ordered only the DFG to make specific changes, and not the farms. Private fish-raising facilities are self-controlling, i.e. when they have a problem, they fix it or risk going out of business, something that won't happen with state-owned hatcheries.
The costs associated with the inspections, monitoring and all the other unnecessary could run as high as $30,000 or more, which would immediately put most farms out of business. Their only crime so far seems to be the DFG's ineptitude for failing to take the original lawsuit seriously.
Besides the fish farms, California $2.4-billion fresh water fishing addition to the state's economy will be jeopardized along with thousands of jobs and millions of man-hours of recreational opportunities. Think of the sporting goods retailers, boat and marine shops, motels, manufacturing, bait and tackle shops and many other job-creating businesses that could go under or suffer needlessly. And that also includes those outdoor writers (me, for instance), whot make their living spreading the good word about the great outdoors.
Aquaculture farms will face the might of the California Fish and Game Commission on Aug. 3-4 in Sacramento when the DFG will try to get the agenda to derail fish farms approved by the rule-making board. Most people believe that the proposed regulations far exceed the authority of the DFG, because the state's legislature has not, nor will it, get involved with the DFG's inept policies.
Public comment will be allowed and now is the time to stand up and be counted. Concerned citizens, and that includes anyone who fishes in this state, can stand up and be counted by either writing, phoning or being physically on hand when the commission meets early next month. Anglers wanting to continue enjoying California's outstanding fishing need to get involved in this one or risk losing it.
Contact the commission at:
California Fish and Game Commission, P.O. Box 944209, Sacramento, CA 94244-2090, or call (916) 653-4899.
