If wind-driven upwelling is good for the fish, then wow, we are gonna have a lot of fish! I think, though, that at some point the ocean is supposed to calm down for a bit and warm enough to life to bloom in the nutrient-rich water. Right now the ocean here is a Vichyssoise incapable of feeding anything. The Bodega Bay weather buoy drifted off into oblivion last January (no date arranged yet for a replacement) but the Point Reyes waverider shows that the water temp has dropped from 52.5º F to a not-so-balmy 49.3º F today. I guess the current takes that cold soup South where it can warm up and feed things like plankton, krill, pelagic red crab and all the things that eat them. I just hope that there's enough food out here for the salmon smolts that are hitting the ocean soon. 

     There are a couple of wayward pelicans around now, so if you believe that the birds know what's going on in the ocean better than we do (I have strong suspicion that it's true) at least a couple of them think the anchovies are coming. It's only a couple, though, so I don't anticipate anchovies for another week or three. These are the pelican optimists and optimists are often disappointed. 

   The whale show in the Outer Bay has been really good with lots of spouting and spy-hopping. The CDFW has issued an advisory to the commercial guys to limit their traps to 180 feet of water or less in California waters North of the Sonoma/Mendocino County line starting on the 10th. The rest of the state needs to continue following best practices for whale safe fishing. This is a sneak peek at next year's Dungeness season for us. And God help us all if they determine that the Mexican gear stuck on the gray whale calf (it appeared, tangled, at the California border) is actually crab gear. The round buoy trailing the whale would indicate that it is not from here, but since California can't dictate what happens in Mexico (the war on drugs worked, right?) it seems likely that regardless of whose gear is tied up on that poor baby whale our regulations may change yet again. What we can't change elsewhere we will try to fix here.

    So, the crabbing in the bay has been sloooow. There were a few boats that caught a few over the weekend but even most of them said that the weather was too windy for even decent crabbing. It is likely that the low number of keeper Dungeness in the bay may have contributed to the low number of retained crabs as well. Shore snarers are still getting a few but times are hard for most crabbers.