Forage species like herring, squid, and sardines are the heartbeat of the ocean, feeding larger wild fish, marine mammals and seabirds. Though small in size, forage fish have a huge impact on ocean health. No other category of fish determines the fate of our favorite seafood as much as the availability of sufficient forage to keep them healthy and productive. But, as Sascha Zubryd said well in her May 13 Sentinel article, "these little fish are in big trouble."
Thirty years ago forage species accounted for 40 percent of California's commercial fish landings by weight; today, with big fish gone, forage landings have soared to 85 percent. We are taking more and more of these small fish out of the ocean without considering how much other fish and wildlife that eat them need to survive.
Overfish the forage, and the rest of the marine species are in trouble ... but this is exactly what is happening in California today. Pacific sardines have declined 70 percent in the past decade and market squid are being fished at record levels. California fisheries, like salmon, rockfish and tuna, are depleted and in dire need of recovery.
A recent federal study found that top ocean predators off California have declined by more than 50 percent since 2003. Removing their source of food is like taking medicine away from the patient. Traditional fisheries management concentrates on single species and does not take into account the role those fish may play in the bigger ocean picture. We are ignoring that forage fish may be worth more to California's $12 billion coastal tourism and recreation economy than they are if we remove them.
As the May 13 article pointed out, the question of fishing sustainably is a matter of political will. That's why a strong coalition of conservationists, fishermen and seafood businesses that want to see more local seafood, a restored fishing economy and healthy California oceans are supporting Assembly Bill 1299 that emphasizes the critical role that forage species play in California's ocean waters. This legislation will move away from today's unsuccessful single species money fish management to an approach that finally considers how much forage should be left in the ocean.
Just as with the Monterey sardine collapse of the 1950s that ended the cannery era in Monterey, the declines we are seeing in critical forage species are due to a combination of poor ocean conditions and fishing pressure. We cannot control ocean conditions, but we can control overfishing and we don't need to shut down fishing to protect forage species. Rather than importing 85 percent of our seafood from other countries as we do now, let's do what we can to bring back our wild fisheries so we can once again have abundant local seafood and vibrant fishing communities along our coasts.
As Coastside Fishing Club Chairman Darrell Ticehurst recently wrote, "We must get the forage fish harvest under control now. If we sever the food chain at its most vulnerable spot or even overharvest by a small amount, we risk permanent damage to the ocean."
We have the ingenuity to protect and restore our oceans while still maintaining fishing and healthy coastal communities for this and future generations. By protecting forage species, AB 1299 provides us with another tool to meet this end.
Geoff Shester is the California program director for Oceana, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the world's oceans.