baitcast - 8-21-2007 at 10:07 AM
I was looking forward to your trip as well,check with Ken Bondy he has a trip next month planned,he may know something of the problem,I was looking
forward to his pics of the GWS
and of yours of the fishing in general.
BAITCAST
Ken Bondy - 8-21-2007 at 11:14 AM
I will be there on a white shark photo trip September 15-19. I haven't heard of any problems as of this hour. We will be on the Andrea Lynn out of
Ensenada, I think it has Mexican registry if that makes a difference. I will post if I hear anything relevant.
[Edited on 8-21-2007 by Ken Bondy]
Bajaboy - 8-21-2007 at 11:21 AM
I read this article recently:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/outdoors/20070810-9999-...
By Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 10, 2007
With albacore tougher to find and kelp paddies delivering less and less, owners and captains of San Diego-based sportfishing boats are eagerly
awaiting Mexican permits to fish Guadalupe Island.
“We need them right now; we need to get in there to fish,” said Captain Andy Cates of the Red Rooster III. Cates said his most recent five-day trip
was good early for limits of yellowtail, but the kelp paddies were so devoid of fish later he anchored his anglers for rockcod below Geronimo Island.
Advertisement
As of yesterday, the fleet's fishing permits to fish Guadalupe Island were not in hand. Guadalupe Island is a biosphere reserve, a conservation area
since Aug. 16, 1928, making it one of the oldest reserves in Mexico. It's 150 miles off Baja's west coast and some 270 miles southwest of San Diego.
Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Association of California, had been working for more than four months to secure the permits before going
on vacation Wednesday. An SAC spokesman said Juan Caro of JC Environmental Co. Inc., in San Diego, who has been representing the fleet in the permit
process, returned from Ensenada yesterday morning with encouraging news.
“Hopefully we will receive the permits within 48 to 72 hours,” an SAC spokesman said. “We can't conclusively say that, but that's the hope. The big
thing is that we come out of this with a process to use each year for the permits.”
John Klein, owner of the Qualifier 105, said the long-range fleet is confident it can work within Mexico's guidelines that call for more protection of
its islands. Guadalupe Island, because of its large pinniped population, has served as a gathering place for great white sharks, which are protected
globally through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Sport boats have not targeted them in any way other than to
observe the sharks as they gorge on hooked fish that anglers fail to reel away from the hungry sharks.
“Mexico is interested in making sure the islands are good places to visit and that conservation is practiced,” Klein said. “Conservation is what this
long-range fleet is all about. We're on the front page of conservation with our Fishing Code of Ethics.”
The long-range fleet's self-imposed and self-regulated Fishing Code of Ethics went into place in March and calls for fishing regulations more
restrictive than Mexico's.
CONANP, which is the Spanish acronym for the National Commission on Natural Protected Areas, administers all biospheres in Mexico. Mexico's recent
move to decentralize its federal government resulted in CONANP's regional offices, such as the one in Ensenada, having more authority.
Mexico will add a new biosphere next year called the Pacific Islands Biosphere Reserve. It will include the Coronados just south of San Diego, Todos
Santos, San Martín, Geronimo, Cedros, Benitos and Alijos Rocks. The creation of that new biosphere is expected to result in more delays in the
permitting process for long-range sport boats.