Spearfishing allowed at the Breakwater??

[mweitz]

It is currently legal to spearfish at the BW. There is no official reserve there, but one does take effect on 9 / 21 / 07. After that it will be illegal to spear there, but you can still H&L.

The city of Monterey calls that area the Friends of Edward F. Ricketts Marine Reserve. They claim that the State of California deeded the suberged lands to 60' to them. See
http://www.rickettsreserve.org/ for the following:

Our ocean is public. California holds title to all the submerged lands from the high tide line to three miles off shore, however the submerged lands along the shores of Monterey and Pacific Grove out to a depth of 60 feet, were deeded to the cities in the 1930's by the State Lands Commission. The responsibility of the public trust of our ocean was included in the deed. Currently Monterey has challenged the state of California on which entity has control of the sub-tidal lands and is in court at this writing.

I believe it is currently against Monterey City law to carry a speargun on the beach at the BW, but I believe it is legal to carry a polespear.

I've attached a map of the new reserve that is to take effect on 9 / 21 / 07.

If you are unsure, it is probably best not to hassle people on the beach.

Mark

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

The new Marine Protected Area at the Breakwater will be a State Marine Conservation
Area, not a State Marine Reserve. We wish it were an SMR, then there would be
NO take allowed.


Chuck

 

[liberato]

...his red/burgundy late model Dodge Ram truck had Fort Bragg military stickers and military plates...

Note that Monterey is home to the Naval Postgraduate School and the Defense Language Institute.

 

[wdunne311]

Note that Monterey is home to the Naval Postgraduate School and the Defense Language Institute.

I'm very disappointed that these two did this. It showed poor judgement, regardless of whether it was legal or not. It reflects poorly on us as a military when a few individuals do something that the rest of us pay for. This 0.01% is not representative of the armed forces as a whole.

 

[RoyN]

No point in spear fishing. Might as well go to Safeway on the side of Highway 1 where the fishes were caught legally, bigger, and probably more safer to eat too.

 

[KMD]

I believe it is currently against Monterey City law to carry a speargun on the beach at the BW, but I believe it is legal to carry a polespear.

Ok this would make sense when one time at the breakwater, I saw a diver with a speargun swim in along the wall, then hand his gun up to his buddy while still in the water and then walk onto the beach.

 

[mweitz]

No point in spear fishing. Might as well go to Safeway on the side of Highway 1 where the fishes were caught legally, bigger, and probably more safer to eat too.

You are kidding right? Fish is one of the most sensitive foods we deal with. When spearfishing I clean my fish in the water and take utmost care to ensure that my catch doesn't get "bruised" and banged around on the trip to the cooler. I never fed my family fish before I started spearing since the fish at the store is so disgusting.

While I personally have never speared the Breakwater I don't think there is any "real" reason not to and don't feel those guys did anything wrong.

By the way Roy, do you know that a lot of commercial fisherman "poach". There are a lot of ways to do it, but one is to lie on your manifest and pay taxes on a lesser valued fish than what you actually caught. This is in essence stealing from every Californian.

The fish at the store aren't necessarily bigger, and are certainly not safer to eat that what you catch yourself (you know where the fish lived and how it was handled when you catch it yourself. Didn't they recently find human urine on fish in stores? It is also of interest that a lot of commercial fisheries are destructive to the environment, damaging the areas that they fish.

Hook and Line fishermen leave hooks, weights, and monofilament all over our dive sites and the ocean (check the Pinnacles or the boulders at the Breakwater wall next time you are there).

Spearfisherman create their own set of problems, but I believe they are minor compared to the other ways of fishing. I choose spearfishing because it allows me to dive and to fish at the same time. I personally only hunt holding my breath, but don't see anything wrong with hunting on SCUBA. I will often spend 4 to 6 hours in the water freediving and only shoot one or two fish. I bet I see as much spearfishing as most folks see on SCUBA.

Mark

 

[trickkykidd]

You only have to go to a nice unprotected tropical location like Hawaii to see what damage spearfisherman can do.

Good luck finding any sizable fish to hunt let alone see on the reefs near oahu.

 

[wdunne311]

Hook and Line fishermen leave hooks, weights, and monofilament all over our dive sites and the ocean (check the Pinnacles or the boulders at the Breakwater wall next time you are there).

The fisherman comment made me think about something I saw on Tuesday underwater that made me chuckle and shake my head at the same time. Seems that someone at Lover's Point decided to either throw or drop their entire fishing rod with tackle attached into about 30-35 feet of water. It was kind of far out, so it must have been from a boat. We see some odd things on the bottom of the ocean.

 

[RoyN]

You are kidding right?

Yes I am!