Commercial Squid Boats!

A couple years ago our Monterey bay was filled with squid eggs that resulted in excellent white sea bass fishing. Last year the commercial boats were hauling tons of squid out of the bay and yes the white bass fishing was excellent. However, my concern is that commercial boats now netting tons of squid along Asilomar not allowing the squid to enter the bay to spawn is going to have a real negative affect on the sport fishing in the bay. Especially the white bass! The area in front of Asilomar is also a closed area for fishing. Am I the only one with this concern or am I just worried about nothing

I seen it happen before one past years the wsb came in the Bay with the squid and and the white sea bass was WO for a weekend and when the Squid Boats went out to make their money,  guess  what the by catch was? yup! WSB in the hundreds and that was the end of WSB. Ben I'm hopping that were just worried about nothing.

I read somewhere that they were going to meet their quota by the 15th.

When the squid boats get in close in La Jolla, the diehards paddle up to the boats and buy live squid off them.

I agree Ben.
I think the wsb bycatch issue isn't as bad as removing all the potential spawners. Those squid are usually spread out across the bay, but they tend to congregate & spawn in the same areas each year. And that's when the wsb concentrate on the mass of squid and go nuts. But if the potential spawners are all removed before they get a chance to "do their thing" then the wsb won't be as concentrated.
It seems like this year, the seiners have been all over the place...but generally south of Monterey down by Garrapata or off Cypress/Asilomar. I don't believe those squid are spawning--these guys are just locating isolated schools & wrapping them up...before they enter the bay. The good news is they'll meet their quota soon. Bad news is there may not be as many spawners and they'll be difficult to locate because the seiners will be gone.
Like everything in the ocean, wsb harvest is cyclical. Look back at the commercial landings data from Monterey Bay and you'll see that in 2004 & 2005, there was only 251lbs of wsb brought to market. Then from 2006, 2007, 2008 it averaged 2500lbs. But it was over 70,000lbs each of the last few years! Maybe we're looking at another downturn in wsb harvest. Only time will tell. 

And, unfortunately, the seiners that work inside Monterey are not as generous as those in La Jolla. They will straight up run you over. I've personally witnessed it and it's been well documented on here.