Kelly has added some of her photos to her album here on the site. Take a look. Fantastic stuff, Kelly.

MINI COMP WINNERS April 22, 2006 SEA WEED
NOVICE 1ST PLACE       CHRIS MENJOU
              1ST PLACE       JOHN GONDA
              2ND PLACE      CHRIS MENJOU
              3RD PLACE      CHRIS MENJOU
OPEN     1ST PALCE       MATT SEGAL
              2ND PALCE       KELLY BRACKEN
              3RD PLACE       JIM LYLE
VIDEO    ONE WINNER    DWIGHT CRUMB

I am writing to find out if any of your members would be willing to donate images for use in the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF)'s new invertebrate/algae monitoring program. REEF is a non-profit organization that coordinates volunteer monitoring of marine life (mostly fishes). Scuba divers and snorkelers conduct visual surveys during their dives and report their sightings to a central database (www.reef.org/data/database.htm). We are starting a new program for invertebrates and algae in California and we need images to use in our training and outreach programs. Unfortunately we do not have the funds to pay image use fees, but we can provide a one-time tax-deductible donation credit of $50/image. Photographic credit will be given and we will do our best to prohibit unauthorized use.

Species that we are in need of images for are:
oarweed - Laminaria farlowii
southern sea palm - Eisenia arborea
northern sea palm - Pterygophora californica
red rock shrimp - Lysmata californica
southern staghorn bryozoan - Heteropora pacifica
northern staghorn bryozoan - Diaperoecia californica

I would very much appreciate it if you could distribute this request to photographers who might be willing to assist us in this effort.

Thanks in advance,
Christy Pattengill-Semmens, Ph.D. <christy@reef.org>
Director of Science
Reef Environmental Education Foundation

We've got a meeting this wednesday, speaker is Richard Woulfe from Wakatobi Resort showing images and information on The Pelagian and its explorations around the Wakatobi archipelago.

The mini comp theme is seaweed.

I will not be at the meeting more bidness travel, please do not email your pictures to me ahead of time.

Please bring your images to the meeting, and please name your files as follows, it really makes running the comp easier:

0604_open-or-novice_title_your-name.jpeg

thanks!

Despite receiving thousands of emails in opposition, at its March meeting, the PFMC has approved experimental permits for longlines and gillnets.

From the website:

Exempted Fishing Permit for Drift Gillnet Fishery: In November 2005, the PFMC developed three options to re-open a time-area closed zone (August 15-November 15 from a line off of Newport to Monterrey Bay in California shore to 200 miles) currently closed to drift gillnet fishing. The closure is to protect endangered turtles from drift net bycatch. The proposal before the council is to allow for an exempted fishing permit research study in this closed area to demonstrate if a fishery can be re-instituted. Options included no action (continued the drift gillnet area closure) and various sized areas within the closed zone that would open for the research fishery. Therefore the Council had two decisions: whether to allow a limited EFP fishery, and the size/location of the time-area closure zone. Significant public correspondence and testimony objected to re-opening this area to a gill net fishing EFP. The Council was charged with adopting a preferred alternative which would undergo review by NMFS under the ESA laws with a goal of final amendment regulations in August of 2006.

The Council approved a limited drift gillnet EFP off of CA and OR (up to cape Lookout). The EFP limits the fishery to a total of 300 sets (Alternative 3.7). It would include full observer coverage, plus would establish a hard cap (i.e., EFP would end if one of the following occur): serious injury or death of 2 sea turtles, or one serious injury or mortality of any of the following whale species: sperm, fin, grey, humpback or minke whales. The fishery would be conducted in the existing time-
area closure (no change in boundaries) zone and would be exempt from the August 15- through November 15, 2006 closure. NMFS spoke in favor of the Council pursuing future research on other gear types with lower bycatch rather than drift gill net gear.

Exempted Fishing Permit for a Long-line Fishery off of CA:
This is a proposal to allow a limited long-line fishery experiment to demonstrate if it can be a better (less turtle bycatch) alternative to drift gillnets while targeting swordfish. The application is for one participant taking four longline trips using circle hooks and shallow set long-line gear. The EFP would have full observer coverage. The Council approved this EFP. An environmental assessment would need to be developed before final Council approval in April or June.

The April 2006 edition of the LAUPS Underwater Flash is now available at our downloads page, or via this link. Thanks to newsletter editor Walter Marti!

On Saturday the 1st, I joined the Sea Divers on the Great Escape for a trip to Farnsworth Banks. The weather was great: there was a quick squall in the middle of the night that I didn't really notice, and we spent a day on pretty flat water under sunny skies. We got two dives in at Farnsworth and went to Catalina, to Black Rock, on the front side, for a long gate time for the rest of the day. It turned out that there were several other LAUPS members on the boat (Walter Marti and Linda Blanchard) as well as two OCUPS members (Walter Marti and Linda Blanchard). Naturally, we set up an informal shootout. The OCUPS team suffered a minor setback on the 2nd dive, when Walter's drysuit leaked, and the LAUPS team graciously leveled the playing field when their videographer volunteered to also sit the dive out. We'll hear about the results at the next meeting!

A one-two punch of bleaching from record hot water followed by disease has killed ancient and delicate coral in the biggest loss of reefs scientists have ever seen in Caribbean waters. Details at this link.