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California Fish and Game Commission - Marine Resources Committee meeting in Sacramento to discuss Decadal Management Review Petitions. 5 Petitions will be evaluated and discussed and our Petition 2023-23MPA will be sorted out for the next round. ours is the largest of the 20 petitions to be discussed. Urchin culling in Marine Protected Areas is our big ask and we need support from the diving community to speak up at the meeting over Zoom on Wednesday Nov. 6, Agenda Item #2 (probably starts at 11:00 AM or later. Link: https://wildlife-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/859530031001) Culling urchins in Marine Protected Areas: Edward F. Ricketts, Pacific Grove Gardens, Carmel Bay, Whaler's Cove, and Tanker's Reef
2) Planting kelp by transplants and spore bags.
3) Baiting and trapping urchins.
4) Pruning kelp canopy to improve kelp growth and reduce damage from winter storms.
5) Artificial Reefs.
6) Buoys to help guide restoration
7) Establishing Restoration Management Permits in the CDFW portal (presently only Scientific Collecting Permits)
8) Adopt a reef program.
9) Redesignating 3 State Marine Conservation areas as State Marine Reserves to protect kelp and divers from fishing effort.
10) Designating Tanker's Reef as a State Marine Reserve.
11) Our new petition 2024-10 seeks to use an urchin air lift to remove urchins. This will be discussed at the October 9 FGC meeting but will also be discussed here on day 2 of the MRC.
The red sea urchin fishing commission will be opposing our petition. Working with Jon Holcomb, a red urchin fisherman in Fort Bragg, we discovered a better way to remove urchins that is 15 times more efficient than culling them with a hammer. We want to use this recreationally and ranch the larger urchins in a regenerative fishery, See the petition here: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=225297&inline
In person: Natural Resources Headquarters Building
Second Floor, 715 P Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Virtual: Join the meeting on Zoom: https://wildlife-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/85953003100
Read the biggest petition of all for the central coast: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i4ZuLv4kWSt98__WudsA6eBC5xqut-bD?usp=sharing
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
715 P St, Sacramento, CA 95814-6400, United States
