Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project

By Larry Wolf

Over the last 18 months, we have been trying to relocate our Salmon Rearing Pens that were originally located at Moss Landing, to the Santa Cruz Harbor.  Our Moss Landing operation was shut down due to the constant dredging going on to keep the harbor open to commercial as well as sport fishing boats.  This dredging caused too much water pollution to continue to operate our pens during late spring.  We have been working with the DFG as well as the Harbor Master at the Santa Cruz Harbor.  We have been successfully in obtaining a favorable review from our local Fish & Game people but our still waiting on our final permits before we begin construction of our new pens.  We are hopping to hear from them by the end of November 2000.  This should give us enough time to get the pens built in time to receive our first load of fish in May 2001. 

This year we had one of the best Salmon seasons on record.  I personally caught Salmon through September.  Many of these fish were our hatchery fish released from our Monterey Pens each May.  We release over 120,000 fish each year into the Monterey Bay.  These fish are salted to this area by the method we use in holding these fish in fresh water pens first and then acclimating them to salt water over a five-day period.  These fish are then feed for 10 days and then released directly into the bay on an out going tide.  This program helps the fisherman, the local sea lion and harbor seal populations without effecting our native fish populations.  These Salmon have a time cycle that forces them to spawn in the fall of the year, our steams due not have enough water to allow these fish to migrate into our local streams.  This keeps the bio diversity of our local streams in place and allows for recreational as well as commercial fishing in the ocean during the late summer. 

When we get our final permits, the construction face will quickly begin.  The cost will be close to $25,000.00.  We need donations as well as people to help build the new salmon pens.  We hope you can help.  Please contact Al Smith or Larry Wolf at 458-3095 or call me at 688-4257.  I hope to hear from all of you soon.

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