Groups lobby Fish & Game to keep white sturgeon fishery open
Letter August 9, 2024
To: California Fish and Game Commission 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1320 Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: FGC Meeting Aug 15th Item 14: Section 2084 finding for White Sturgeon recreational fishery
Dear President Murray, Vice President Zavaleta, and Members of the Fish and Game Commission:
On behalf of the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (NCGASA) and the Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association (GGFA), we are writing to you today to urge your support of a Section 2084 approved fishery for White Sturgeon after you approved the candidacy CESA listing petition that is pending for White Sturgeon (CESA Petition White Sturgeon 2023.11.29).
NCGASA is an association of over 600 licensed guides and over 4,000 sportsmen and women that work together to protect and increase hunting and fishing opportunities throughout California. NCGASA acts as a voice to represent all people who use California’s waterways and lands. We work closely with many other conservation organizations to make sure we leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren; the same access to outdoor recreation and appreciation for abundant wildlife and fisheries that was instilled in so many of us.
GGFA is a coalition of fishing advocates that includes commercial and recreational anglers, businesses, restaurants, tribes, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on the fishing industry. GGFA has a board comprised of representatives of this diverse community. GGFA’s membership consists of passenger fishing boat owners/operators, fishing – related businesses, marine recreational anglers, and other concerned citizens.
The approval by the Fish and Game Commission of the White Sturgeon candidacy listing petition (CESA Petition White Sturgeon 2023.11.29) has the potential to cause irreparable damage the business and recreational anglers who fish for White Sturgeon in California’s coastal, Delta, and inland waters.
This includes five Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessels with a combined annual revenue of $300,000 for sturgeon fishing, 40 captains operating 6 pack vessels (24 of which are full time at $1.2M and 16 part time at $300,000 revenue),approximately 45 charter/guide services with $1.8M in total revenues, 10-15K recreational boats whose economic impacts are measured in launch fees, gas, bait, tackle, rods, reels, ice and more, and 45,000 individual anglers according to CDFW fisheries data.
Further down the supply chain at bait/suppliers/distributors with an estimated $1M, including approximately 50 tackle stores. According to surveys from our captains and members of the public, we estimate a closure of the sturgeon fishery would cause 20 bait shops would automatically closed their doors. We have already lost 5 businesses since January 2024 (with an estimated economic loss of nearly $100,000).
Over the past year and a half the Department has engaged with various stakeholders on outlining a pathway forward to protecting and conserving white sturgeon in California. First, to be crystal clear, recreational angling is not the cause of concern to the health of this fishery. Instead, this fishery is suffering from the mismanagement of our precious and limited water supplies, allocations of which have resulted in less than ideal breeding and spawning habitat and harmful algal blooms which have indiscriminately killed thousands of fish, sturgeon among them.
Further, the Department lacks the funding and organizational structure to have a solid sense of the actual number of sturgeon in the system. In fact current scientific sampling and analysis underway show that the abundance estimates used are perhaps a magnitude of order to low and we are dramatically underestimating the count.
Regardless, the sturgeon working group, with limited data in hand, came to the conclusion that a 4% exploitation rate would be acceptable given the best available scientific understanding of the current state of the fishery. It is from this information at the October 2023 Commission meeting that the Commissioners recognized the importance of keeping the industry viable and directed the Department and the industry to work together on a solution for the 2024 season.
In an effort to aide data collection on this species NCGASA and GGFA members (guides and charter boat captains out on the water every day) have been participating in citizen led FLAME sturgeon data collection over the past 18 months. To date we have submitted raw data to the Department that includes over 1000 caught sturgeon (not all are harvested, this is total catch including a significant number of releases). This data includes geographic location, time, place, pictures of the fish on a certified ruler, and includes biological characteristics and traits of each individual fish including length and estimated weight. This critical data is the freshest and best available science we currently have to analyze this species, and we look forward to continuing to contribute to this effort and study.
Comparing our catch rates utilizing FLAME data from 2024 to 2023 we have seen a reduction in harvest by 93%. If this holds true among the entire recreational community we are on track to fall well below the 4% exploitation agreed to by the Working Group and implemented by the Commission and CDFW.
We are hopeful that you will continue in this pattern, choosing a pathway that maintains the Department’s conservation objectives, and allows for continued economic vitality of our hard hit fisheries sector. As you have directed Department to study the candidacy listing petition you still have the authority to continue to authorize a limited recreational fishery under Section 2084, and we urge you to do so.
In closing, the Department’s own data indicates the steep and dramatical decline in license sales, harvest tags, and other recreational activities that a complete closure or a “catch and release only” season would inflict. Please also realize that the economic cost of these actions will come to bear on us, and we are already suffering from the 2nd year of a complete salmon season closure that is currently in effect along with the continued decline in the striped bass population.
There is a pathway forward to maintain angler enthusiasm and protect the species and meet the limited harvest objectives defined by the state. We urge you to work with us to find win-win pathways forward for the future of this fishery, anglers, and our industry.
Sincerely,
James Stone
President, Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association
James Smith
Board Member, Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association
Cc: Melissa Miller-Henson, Executive Director, FGC Chuck Bonham, Director, CDFW
