Totoaba

[Shore_Fisher]

Amazing photo from PP. Associated text below.
[attachment=0:14awhh8g]cmacdon4.jpg[/attachment:14awhh8g]
This photo, taken by L.M. Huey or an associate, at Puerto Peñasco in February 1934, was provided by Dr. John Hendrickson who had reported it (Hendrickson, J.R 1979. Totoaba: Sacrifice in the Gulf of California - Letter to my Grandchildren. Oceans. 12: 14-18) as a mass of totoaba. Other publications have used the same photo and species identification. Dr. Lloyd Findley has since pointed out that he has seen other photos by L.M. Huey taken at the same time that provide a more complete sequence of the event, and include a photo of the person in this “boil” picture (Phillip Lickty) afterwards standing on shore holding up several specimens that he had caught by hand from the frenzied group. Dr. Findley (pers. comm. 2003) reports that the specimens in that photo are clearly identifiable as Cynoscion othonopterus (Gulf corvina or corvina golfina).

[Stuart]

Ahhh, the good ol' days. They probably wouldn't be near extinction if they didn't taste so damn good! Uh, not that I'd know anything about that... :roll:

The advent of refrigerated trucks and a poor nation after the depression brought the mighty totuava to market in Los Angeles. Add to that they were easy to catch and swarmed the beach en masse as shown in the picture. It was easy pickings in San Felipe, where the beach and water was said to run red with their blood as they were stacked like cordwood for shipment to LA.

From a sportfishing perspective, they are difficult to release alive once caught. I've watched them go belly-up after release on a couple of occasions, even with great care and resuscitation. I'm talking small 10 pounders, not the 200 lb. monsters that used to be common throughout the northern Cortez.

However, they are slowly making a comeback and that's a very positive thing!

[jerry]

http://www.desertfishes.org/na/sciaenid ... acdo.shtml (http://www.desertfishes.org/na/sciaenid/cynoscio/cmacdona/i_cmacdo.shtml)

Man and I thought the 5 buck rock lobster dinners we'd eat while camping on Sandy Beach in 1971 BC (before Coups) was as good as it got

[dmcauley]

As long as we keep ringing every drop of water out of the Colorado river there will not be enough for the locals to slaughter-What a waste! :eek3:

[bahiatrader]

In case anyone hasn't beeen to the mouth of the Colorado River, it's only ankle deep when it flows into The Sea of Cortez. There's a road that crosses just above the mouth. The river is kind of slow flowing there and half fills three culverts about one meter or three feet across. I'm told that there's a lot of chemicals in the river as a result of fertilizers used up river. I've also read that the salinity of The Sea of Cortez is increasing due to the lack of fresh water flowing into it. That coupled with over harvesting doesn't speak very well for the future of one of my favorite fishin' holes. :(

[Wood Spinner]

Hey I don't like to a bad news guy but if they add the de salination plant in RP that will also kick up the salinity of the water.
From what I have read the plant is almost a sure thing for RP. The second bad is they may add extra units to also provide water to Phoenix, so more salinity.

Tought to Be Happy Bill

[bahiatrader]

I would think they'd find a use for the salt left over from the process. When I lived in Tampico they had large tidal salt flats. They'd let the tide in and block it off until the sea water evaporated. Then they would harvest the salt.

[jerry]

Yep it will all be O.K. We're just killing time till the rapture so why not just fill our saltshakers from right behind our polluted beaches, BBQ some of those darn Polar Bears (we'll chase them to the gates of hell) drill drill drill and forment a civil war in Mexico so we can steal their oil and have a good place for new nuclear plants and waste storage to boot.
If that damn commie Obama gets in we'll be forced to drive smaller cars,live within our means and cooperate with our neighbors. What fun is that.

[bahiatrader]

Where do you think sea salt that you buy in the store comes from? Siberia? All I want is some sodium chloride with a touch of iodine, i.e Morton's Iodized. That's sea salt good enough for me.

[Wood Spinner]

All may be true but they ARE talking of pumping it back into the ocean.
Bill

[bahiatrader]

I wouldn't doubt it. Historicallly Mexico has not been very eco-friendly. That's why several US chemical companies moved some of their operations to Mexico.

[Kenny]

With more to come... Help the Tohono O’odham Indigenous Peoples of Sonora, Mexico http://www.greenaction.org/indigenouslands/tohonooodham/index.shtml

[HAPPY]

~~~ KENNY, ~~~ :lol:

~~~ "ROCKO" SAID TO TELL YOU ~~~ "GOTCHA" ~~~ :lol:

~~~ ALSO ~~~ I SAY THAT YOUR TAG LINE IS KIND OF CORNY ~~~ :lol:

~~~ AND ITS GETTING "OLD" ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol:

~~~ SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT WILL YOU ~~~ :lol:

~~~ KITTY, KITTY, KITTY, ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Kenny]

Sally, you can tell Rocko to KISS MY KITTY!
[attachment=0:1x7txnz0]What Me worry.jpg[/attachment:1x7txnz0]

[HAPPY]

~~~ I JUST KNEW YOU'D TAKE THE BAIT ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol:

~~~ I ~~~ SALLY NEVER MISSES ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol:

~~~ WHAT WOULD THIS PLACE BE WITHOUT ALL YOU FORUM :fish: Y :fish: Y :fish: Y'S

~~~ ROCKO IS LAUGHING HIS ASS OFF ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol:

~~~ COME ON ~~~ TAKE THE SECOND HOOK ~~~ :lol: :lol: :lol:

[InkaRoads]

MMMMM "Sally" such a sexy name, could we have a picture of you Saaaaally? make it provocative!!!!

[bahiatrader]

I don't think the pollution, slaughter and destruction of ecosystems in Mexico is anything to joke about. The polititians naturally try paint glowing pictures of everything the government is doing to stop it, but I see appalling scars of human miss-use nearly everywhere I've traveled in Mexico. Even the remote Seri Village of El Desemboque, the one just North of Kino Bay, has a plastic bag flying from nearly every bush surrounding the village.
When we lived in Tampico, we stayed on a beautiful little lake, 10 mi. North of town. I got a chance to see varieties of birds and reptiles I'd never seen before. The lake was a comfortable 83 F. and I'd go swimming almost every day when we first got there. I even tried fishing from the shore a couple of times. For a pollution lab I was doing, I took a sample of the lake water, hoping to use it for a control. After we tested the water from the lake, I immediately started looking my body over for lesions and such. The lake was full of highly toxic chemicals. It's no wonder I didn't catch any fish. A large chemical company whose name is prominant on the New York Stock Exchange, had a large plant across the lake from us. Every morning just about daylight, they would dump a huge glob of ugly looking black goop into the lake. I never swam in Laguna De Miralta again.
This prompted me to do a little research. It seems that a large number of companies, predominantly from the US, have moved production to Mexico, not only for cheaper labor, but also for lax pollution laws, and lax enforcement of the ones that do exist. To quote my Mexican ex business partner, "In Mexico, anything can be arranged for money". Having done business in Mexico, I admit to being privvy to such goings on. I don't know that the problem will ever be fixed, but I sure don't think it's anything to joke about.

[InkaRoads]

unfortunatelly the high index of ignorance and the political corruption in most, I say all, third world countries makes them a great target for other developed countries to move their industries to continue wiht thier uncontroled pollution, you say it, I say it, everybody knows it, we are not laughing at that fact, we should start crying that as one of the most advanced countries in the world we, USA, still takes advantage of smaller governments, not in size but in scrupples?, to continue with the same rapping of mother earth with out any remourse.
Kenny presents a perfect example of disregard to anything, the Mexican government is pouring millions of dollars in improving the north east coast of the sea of Cortez (Sonora) for tourism, highways, developments, etc. to bring people to the area however the first thing that comes to their mind is to bring a hazardous waste site near where all the people is going to start consentrating in the next 20 to 25 years to stop tourism and therefore income, we all hope it will not happen, most probably not but if we let our wishes be heard by contacting the numbers above (Kenny's post) we the user of the land might have a chance to also stop wrong doings in the world not just USA and eventually be able to jump in any body of water that we come acroos with.

[bahiatrader]

Unfortunately I don't think that is going to happen in my lifetime. Maybe in the lifetimes of our grandchildren, but certainly not in the near future.

[azbeachboy]

"S" stands for "Sally"
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/ ... oman-2.jpg (http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u46/azbeachman/superwoman-2.jpg)

[InkaRoads]

We all know it will not happen overnite, however if we start now it might happen for our grandkids to be able to run around and jump in any body of water they come across, I donno!! just a thought :eek3: my ~~uasu~~

[bahiatrader]

There's another problem with any kind of a long range program in Mexico. Since there's no incumbancy, every time there's a Federal election, the administration changes, and it's a whole new ball game. I was told that the roads were sometimes engineered to last only for the length of time that the current President was in office. That way, when the new president came into office, the road builders could begin on the road again... that is after the proper amount of money changed hands. Even though having no re-election might solve some problems, it may present others. I don't know if this is true, but it seemed like the roads in Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz were sure going to hell at the end of Carlos Salinas Gortali's administration. I don't know if this is true either, but I'm told his brother has large land holdings in Sonora. If anyone can correct me, please do.