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Forum nameCalfishing.com Main Board
Topic subjectRE: and the word on the street is
Topic URLhttp://www.calfishing.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=5346&mesg_id=5352
5352, RE: and the word on the street is
Posted by swimbait, Fri Sep-28-12 03:10 PM
The DFG thing is a question mark in my mind.

The message is clear that DFG defended their program against both the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Fish Farming groups.

The thing about 'winning' against the CBD is that DFG developed their new stocking program in response to the CBD lawsuit... and the way the program is, it means DFG has to do pre-stocking assessments and clear all sorts of hurdles (that they erected themselves) before they can stock fish.

This is exactly what they've been doing - slowly - since 2010. So it does not seem at all clear to me whether this "victory" actually means anything in terms of getting places like Castaic Lagoon or Coyote lake stocked again in our lifetimes.

On the fish farming front, that suit came about because when DFG developed their program in 2010 (in response to the CBD lawsuit remember) not only did they deal with the issues in the CBD suit, they expanded the scope of their program to include regulation of fish farms.

By winning that part of the suit, it means DFG is going to regulate the industry much more vigorously than in the past with all sorts of checking of the fish, monitoring for invasive species, etc. Classic debate there about govt. intervention in business vs. environmental protection.

For the fishermen, it means that private hatchery fish are likely to cost the lakes a lot more than they do today. Some fish farms are likely to go out of business as well.

So yeah... I'm not sure 100% on this but my best guess is that DFG will continue it's current glacial pace of reviewing lakes and approving/denying stocking and meantime private trout will cost the lakes more so they will stock less. Hope I'm wrong.