Ocean Creatures

by Carol Georgi, Volunteer
    Sierra Club          Slo Surf Rider          Save Our Seas

Hello Ocean Lovers!       Every Other Breath is From the Ocean
Here is a critter from our San Luis Obispo County coastal waters for you to enjoy! 
Thank you for your interest in the Central Coast Extension of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. 
Underwater photos are by Terry Lilley with Sue Sloan doing the lighting.
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Rockfish     Sebastes spp

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium  

Rockfish are in the Scorpaenidae family and come in more than 100 species and many different shapes, sizes and color patterns. Colors vary from black and drab green to bright orange and red, and some rockfishes have stripes or splotches. Their heads feature large eyes and thick, broad mouths that dip downward at the corners. 

Rockfish, also known as rock cod or Pacific red snapper, are popular with seafood lovers. One of the longest-living fishes, possibly living to 200 years old, some rockfishes don’t breed until they’re 20 years old, and they have few young—these factors make them very vulnerable to overfishing. "Commercial and recreational rockfish fishing from the 1960s to the 1990s sent several rockfish populations plummeting. In fact, some populations have declined by 98% since 1970 due to overfishing and habitat loss, and few adult fishes are left in some areas off Southern California." 

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As we study the diminishing supply of the Rockfish, we need to include those destroyed by the once-through cooling systems of power plants along the California coast. For example, Mothers for Peace reports that Diablo Canyon (DCNPP) entrainment impacts an average source water coastline length of 74 kilometers (46 miles) out to three kilometers (two miles) offshore, an area of roughly 93 square miles, for nine taxa of rocky reef fish. These rocky reef fish include smoothhead sculpin, monkeyface prickleback, clinid kelpfishes, blackeye goby, cabezon, snubnose sculpin, painted greenling, Kelp/Gopher/Black-and-Yellow (KGB) Rockfish Complex, and blue rockfish.  (Water Quality Control Policy on Use of Coastal and Estuarine Waters For Power Plant Cooling)  

Mothers for Peace  further reports that Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) admits in its License Renewal Application that “For all regulatory and assessment purposes, entrainment losses caused by DCNPP are considered 100 percent of all organisms withdrawn from the Pacific Ocean with the intake flow under all conditions. Annual entrainment of larval fish is estimated to range between 1.48 and 1.77 billion.” (Diablo Canyon Power Plant License Renewal Application, Appendix E, Environmental Report, at 4.2-6, )

Further information on marine life destruction by once-through cooling of power plants is in this month's Marine Sanctuary article.

Carol Georgi, Volunteer  
Santa Lucia Sierra Club    
Slo SurfRider