Tag: California

Toxic Algae Bloom Overwhelms California Marine Rescuers as Sea Lions Fall Ill

10/19/2025 - By Dawn Anderson, Published in best4boats.com. A severe harmful algal bloom along Southern California's coast is creating hazardous conditions not only for marine mammals but also for boaters and beachgoers who may encounter disoriented or aggressive sea lions. The crisis highlights growing concerns about ocean health along one of America's… SEE MORE

Cold Water Tips for Big Calico Bass

2/2/2025 - By Jim Hendricks. Special tactics help Southern California anglers catch big calico bass throughout winter. Cooling ocean temperatures, chilly weather and the closure of bottom fishing for many species in January and February discourage a fair number of Southern California saltwater anglers from fishing in winter. Yet to those in the know,… SEE MORE

Image Credits: oceanographicmagazine.com.

Ropeless Gear Trial Divides California Crab Fishery

9/29/2024 - By Carli Stewart. A recent trial of innovative ropeless crab fishing gear off the California coast has sparked a heated debate within the Dungeness crab fishing community. While some accept the technology as a breakthrough in reducing whale entanglements, others view it as another complication in an already struggling industry.… SEE MORE

Crafting the Perfect Lampara Net for California’s Evolving Bait Fishery

9/6/2024 - By Paul Molyneaux. Eureka, California fisherman and innovator Ken Bates strives to build the perfect lampara net. Into his 70s now, Ken Bates has seen decades of fishing on the coast of northern California. He spent 35 winters gillnetting row herring in Humboldt Bay and fished for sardines and anchovies… SEE MORE

California sea lion stricken by the neurotoxin domoic acid from a harmful algal bloom in Santa Barbara County, California. Photo: Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute

Toxic Algal Bloom Affecting California Sea Lions and Dolphins

8/17/2024 - By fisheries.noaa.gov. Upwelling of nutrient-laden ocean water is fueling the algal bloom which produces domoic acid, which can poison marine mammals. Strong upwelling of nutrient-laden water from the deep ocean is driving a bloom of harmful algae along the Southern California coast. It produces a toxin that can poison sea… SEE MORE

Commercial fishermen George Jue, left, and Dan St. Clair work at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.

California’s Salmon Season Faces Second Year Closure

4/28/2024 - By Carli Stewart. All commercial and recreational salmon fishing will be prohibited in California for the second year in a row. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) announced Wednesday that they have adopted ocean salmon fishing recommendations along the Pacific west coast. They stated that the season will provide recreational… SEE MORE

From Urchin Crushing to Lab-Grown Kelp, Efforts to save California’s Kelp Forests Show Promise

3/29/2024 - By Julie Watson. CASPAR BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A welding hammer strapped to her wrist, Joy Hollenback slipped on blue fins and swam into the churning, chilly Pacific surf one fall morning to do her part to save Northern California’s vanishing kelp forests. Hollenback floated on the swaying surface to… SEE MORE

Clusters of Atmospheric Rivers amp up California Storm Damages

2/1/2024 - By LAURA CASTAÑÓN. When multiple atmospheric rivers hit California back-to-back, the economic damage from resulting rain and snowfall is three to four times higher than predicted from individual storms, a Stanford study finds. The insight could help water managers and disaster planners better prepare for future impacts of climate change.… SEE MORE

Hilary Could Be the First Tropical Storm to Hit California in More than 80 Years

8/18/2023 - By Dustin Jones for NPR. Hurricane Hilary, a powerful Category 4 storm brewing off the coast Mexico's Baja California peninsula, is making its way towards the Pacific coast. It's projected to hit southwestern California as a tropical storm — the first since 1939 — by Monday, bringing dangerously high winds… SEE MORE

Terry Lucas, CC BY 3.0 , California_Stormy_Weather_(199096177) via Wikimedia Commons

How California fishing families rallied in the storm

2/27/2023 - By Megan Waldrep Day 1: Jan. 9, 2023 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew…." My husband Chris Dabney and I hunker down in Ojai, California, a little mountain valley 14 miles from the Ventura coast and 23 miles from Channel Islands Harbor, Chris's home… SEE MORE