Goose Barnacles.... YUM!!!!!!

Ummm.  Hi guys.  Kirk Lombard here.  Haven't commented in a while.  I hate to spoil the party and I'm not sure who the DFG contact mentioned was.  But according the 2013 DFG Regs., and dating back as long as I can remember goosenecks are illegal in the state of California.  Here's the text that to my mind confirms this:

(b) Take of all invertebrates is prohibited within state marine reserves. Take of certain invertebrates
may be prohibited within state marine parks and state marine conservation areas as per sub-section
632(b). In addition, tidal invertebrates may not be taken in any tidepool or other areas between the
high tide mark (defined as Mean Higher High Tide) and 1,000 feet seaward and lateral to the low tide
mark (defined as Mean Lower Low Water) except as follows:
(1) Except where prohibited within state marine reserves, state marine parks, state marine conservation
areas, or other special closures only the following may be taken: red abalone, limpets, moon
snails, turban snails, chiones, clams, cockles, mussels, rock scallops, native oysters, octopuses, squid,
crabs, lobsters, shrimp, sand dollars, sea urchins and worms except that no worms may be taken in any
mussel bed, unless taken incidental to the harvesting of mussels.

In other words, it ain't mentioned so it ain't allowed.  The default invert limit is set at 35 only for legally allowable species.  I did not just chance upon this, I spoke to a local game warden about it… at length.  I had posted a nice bit about the deliciousness of Portugese "percebes" on the Monkey Face News, and the next day got a call from said warden who suggested I take the post down…

As re: PSP toxins, remember they show up in anchovies, so really anything that filter feeds is a potential risk (but if they ain't legal you guys won't be eating them anyway, right

The thing I don't get about this all is that goosenecks seem extremely abundant on our coast, not sure what the sex at maturity and growth rate are.  It looks like they grow more slowly than mussels.  Perhaps that's why they were prohibited. I seem to remember in the commercial regs they are specifically prohibited, which makes me wonder if there was a study done at some point… and it was concluded they aren't sustainable.  And yet how much different could the growth patterns be for Mediterranean percebes? Which seem to be the target of a substantial commercial fishery.  Anyway… an interesting thing to research if I had time...

To those who don't already have it, here's the biotin monitoring hotline: 800-553-4133

Kirk-out

well done...none for me then....