Aug 21 2010

Sardine Research Update

Boats, planes and our stalwart research team have been standing at the ready since the close of the directed fishery in July, waiting for Mother Nature to cooperate. And so far the weather gods have been less then helpful in the Northwest and Northern California down to Point Conception.

But the southland has seen clear skies, and we’ve taken advantage of that, as Jeff Luboff and Devin Reed – our southern pilot team – have spotted fish, set boats and photographed 10 successful point sets so far with our southern Experimental Fishing Permit (EFP) vessels: Nick Jurlin on the FV Eileen, Robert Terzoli on the FV Maria T, and Neil Guglielmo on the FV Trionfo.

Schools ranged from five to about 45 tons and represented a nice range of sizes and maturities as well, for a total of nearly 200 mt sardines captured of the approximately 1,050 mt allocated to the Southern CA survey area.

Good job guys!

Grateful thanks also to our southern research team — including Dr. Doyle Hanan, field coordinator for the entire CA project, his son Zach who is overseeing southern operations and the San Pedro markets processing the fish, Tri-Marine and State Fish Co. and their sampling crews.

Monterey EFP vessels King Philip, Sea Wave and El Dorado and their captains, Anthony and Andy Russo and Frank Aliotti, as well as Monterey Fish Company – which will process the northern CA fish – are standing by patiently, waiting for the high sign to conduct point sets. We’re hoping and praying for a weather break soon!

We’ve learned that the coast cleared in the Northwest and pilots resumed transects in WA and OR on Thursday Aug. 18. Our pilot Geno Zandona also completed about 4.5 transects in far Northern CA. And if even part of the northern coast clears, our pilots will continue transects on down the coast over the weekend.

Additionally, we can continue this research project right up to September 15 – the beginning of the fall directed fishery – which allows another three full weeks plus a few days. The weather is typically better and fish are more abundant in Monterey in September; so we still have hope!!

We’ll be filing weekly updates on this blog, along with video and photos to illustrate the action.

Please stay tuned.

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