Volume 28
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Issue 45
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March 23 - April 5, 2017
YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR HANDS LOS OSOS MORRO BAY CAYUCOS CAMBRIA
YourBayNews.com Visitors to the Cayucos Sea Glass Festival March 11 pose for a portrait with some of the local mermaids. More photos on Page 37. Photo by Neil Farrell
See Inside and Online
Udderly Osos Paid For Page 4
Dinner and a Movie Page 36
Fisherman’s Had His Fill of Quotas
City Seeks Amgen Volunteers
By Neil Farrell
By Neil Farrell
n the end it came down to 200 pounds of cow cod. That’s how close the make-or-break point came for Tiffany and Capt. Rob Seitz, of the CFV South Bay, who for the past 5 years have been the only local trawl fishing boat to lease from the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund’s share of the overall allowable take of the U.S. West Coast Groundfish Fishery. The overall quotas, covering Washington, Oregon and California, are set by the federal Pacific Fisheries Management Council or PFMC, and enforced by the National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS. Both are under NOAA. It’s a mixed-stock fishery of more than 90 species of flatfish, roundfish, and other types, caught in waters of 200 fathoms (1,200 feet depth) and deeper. The most efficient way to fish that deep is to drag a net across the seafloor, but fishermen also use long lines of hooks and fish traps. Indeed, all this quota system got started in the first place because it was believed that trawl nets damaged the seafloor.
he City of Morro Bay is looking for volunteers to help with its hosting of an upcoming leg of the 2017 Amgen Tour of California professional bike race, the City announced last week. Deputy City Manager, Ikani Taumoepeau, who is heading up the event for the City, said they need 150-200 volunteer “course marshals” to man the course for Amgen’s Stage 3, set for Tuesday, May 16. Course marshals will work with the police to keep the route safe for racers and spectators. They will only be placed on the route, which winds from South Bay Boulevard, through Morro Bay State Park onto Main Street, turning onto the Embarcadero at Marina and then up Harbor Street to the finish line at Harbor and Morro Avenue. Volunteers will have front row seats to the race and get some cool, tour swag and a race T-shirt. Volunteers will be needed from 2-4 p.m. as the racers make their way into town to the finish.
See Fish, page 4
See Amgen, page 8
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