Fishing
Background
Boy shows fish he caught from the Cabrillo Pier during the City of Los Angeles fishing program.
In 2009, the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessments released an updated Fish Consumption Advisory warning about the risk associated with eating certain species of fish contaminated with PCBs, DDTs, and mercury. The advisory impacts recreational fishing by limiting what people can eat. The Montrose Settlement Resstoration Program (MSRP) is working to restore recreational fishing by providing information to the public about fish contamination and by improving access to a diversity of healthy fish species.
Fishing Restoration Projects
Public Information
The MSRP Public Information project builds on outreach and education work initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Fish Contamination Education Collaborative (FCEC). The FCEC is a federal, state, and local partnership project that focuses on educating the public about the human health hazards associated with DDT and PCB contamination in fish. In particular, the FCEC provides information to help people reduce their exposure to DDTs and PCBs from the fish they eat.
MSRP provides information to anglers to help them make decisions about which fish species to safely eat and how to reduce contamination levels.
Public Information Project Updates
Outreach Mini-Grants
Since 2006, MSRP has provided funding to various youth organizations to develop fishing educational programs. The funding supports the development of curricula, programs or activities to educate young people (and through them, their parents) who consume locally-caught fish on safe ways to fish along the Los Angeles and Orange County coasts, where fish consumption advisories have impacted fishing. Projects use the MSRP comic book as a foundation, and draw from educational materials available through FCEC. Read about this year’s mini-grant projects.
Contact MSRP if you are interested in learning more about these grant programs.
Outreach Products
MSRP created several fishing outreach products that are popular with students and anglers. These products are distributed on fishing piers and through informal and formal educators.
“What’s the Catch?” Comic Book
In our comic book, “What’s the Catch?” Amanda the Seagull teaches two young fishers about how chemicals can move up the food chain to harm wildlife and people. The comic book reminds children and their families about safe fishing practices that can reduce their intake of contaminants and which fish species to avoid eating.
The comic book can be downloaded in three languages (English, Spanish, and Mandarin).
MSRP’s Fish Identification Card
The “Common Subsistence and Sport Fish of Southern California” waterproof card helps anglers identify the fish they have caught so they can look up consumption advisories for that particular fish species. On the back of the card, MSRP provides safe fishing tips and background information on DDT and PCB contamination.
The fish identification card can be downloaded in three languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin)
Fish Contamination Survey
Fish consumption advisories were first issued in the early 90’s and needed to be updated by the time MSRP was developed in 2001. Between 2002 and 2004, MSRP and EPA collected over 2,500 fish including 23 fish species from 28 locations in the Southern California coastal waters. The fish species represented a wide variety of fish often caught by local recreational and commercial anglers. Approximately 900 fish were analyzed for DDTs, PCBs, dieldrin, chlordane, and mercury, to provide a comprehensive understanding of contamination levels across the different species and locations.
Fish Contamination Survey Update
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment used the data collected from the fish contamination survey to update existing fish consumption advisories, and to work with the California Department of Fish and Game to evaluate the existing commercial catch ban for contaminated fish. These data have also been used to plan restoration projects to restore fishing opportunities that were lost due to fish consumption advisories, and to enhance the effectiveness of public outreach and education programs. Finally, EPA is using the data to evaluate current and future risks and potential cleanup action for the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund investigation.
A fact sheet about the fish contamination survey and the full report are available for download.
Artificial Reefs
Pier fishing in Southern California is a popular sport particularly during the summer months. Many Southern California fishing piers are surrounded by soft bottom habitats, which attract fish like the White Croaker, one of the most contaminated fish species. Rocky reef or hard-bottom habitat attracts many more species of fish. MSRP is hoping to create artificial rocky reef habitat along a popular fishing pier in Long Beach, California. Once the project is complete, anglers fishing from the pier will be more likely to catch species of fish that are safe to consume.
Artificial Reefs Project Update
Belmont Pier
In 2009, MSRP initiated an assessment of the biological, physical, chemical, and geological conditions around the Belmont Pier in Long Beach, California. These data confirmed that the site was suitable for an artificial reef. MSRP Trustees and the City of Long Beach, are now working on completing federal and state environmental review and completing designs for the reef to be placed around the pier. The public will have the opportunity to comment on state and federal environmental documents relating to this project in late 2011.
