Podcast with Otis Horning

Kristiana: Hello, my name is Kristiana Davis. I am currently a graduate student at Miami University’s Project Dragonfly and this podcast is focused on San Diego fish species conservation. For this episode I am focusing on technology used in San Diego fish conservation and I am joined Otis Horning, an Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He oversees the California Recreational Fisheries Survey in Southern California. Welcome Otis!

Otis: Thank you for coming out here today. Thanks for having me. Kristiana, tell us about the California Recreational Fishery Survey, known as also as CRFS, and the role it plays in fisheries outreach. So, the California Recreational Fisheries Survey, known as CRFS. It's a multi part survey run by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and it was implemented statewide in 2004. The mission of CRFS is to collect fishery dependent data on California's marine recreational fisheries and to accurately estimate fishing catch and effort for the state. And this helps meet the department's management needs. We have over 400 sampling sites throughout the state, and we contact over 680 fishing parties annually. But in a nutshell, really, what we do is we have roughly 60 samplers out in the field throughout the whole state. And what we're doing is we're interviewing anglers at launch ramps, along the beach, at piers and jetties, aboard fishing boats. We're gathering information on anglers, fishing trips, some demographic data, and we're measuring and weighing any fish that they keep. So, in terms of the role CRFS plays in outreach, I think it plays quite a large role for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Often times, our CRFS samplers are the only Fish and Wildlife representatives that angler, see, or encounter in the field. So, some stuff we do for outreach, we hand out different flyers about fish identification, regulation changes, and other relevant information. In addition, one of the sampler's role in the field is to answer angler's questions, so they provide help with fish identification, how to read the regulations, and just field questions in general.

Kristiana: That was a really good summary of the program. I really enjoyed hearing about that. So, would you say that there's a mix of in person, like giving of information and the use of technology for collecting data as well, in terms of what we give out to the public or what we collect for just like collecting data and for giving out to the public, like the use of technology in general?

Otis: There is on the horizon. We're looking into using tablets, and they potentially will have all sorts of information for samplers in the field. We plan to field test them in the next few months, possibly. So, yeah. We're looking into really upping the technology to collect the data in terms of what we provide for anglers in the field. We don't currently have any apps that Fish and Wildlife has created. There is an app, I think, potentially going to be made by Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in Washington. I'm not sure the status of it, but that's going to be used to potentially help people ID fish. But currently we don't really have anything like that in Southern California for the public or for our samplers at the time.

Kristiana: Okay. Because I was really curious to know what sort of online resources for that recreational Fishman could use to identify fish when out fishing. Is there anything like on a website or something that people could look at if they don't own a book or something?

Otis: They could figure out what kind of rock fish or what kind of lesser-known fish is out there and stuff. Yeah. So, the Department has a website. It's www.wildlife.ca.gov and if you look on the fish and shellfish identification page, there's a lot of resources there. We have some stuff that's printable, printable fish ID guide. There's links to the fish ID key and just a whole bunch of resources there on our website. There also is ocean sport fishing interactive website, but that doesn't really deal with identification as much, but it deals with fishing boundaries in terms of MPAs and regulations that anglers can use in the field. So, if they do have service, they can access all this information from their phones.

Kristiana: And another thing I wanted to ask was, is there any way for the public to stay informed on fisheries issues online and stuff about regulation updates or any new fish identification updates and stuff like that?

Otis: There's a couple of ways anglers can do that. Of course, I mentioned the website, so they can always check the website for any updates on regulations and that I mentioned all those fish identification tools. There's also articles and information about any sort of fisheries issues on our website. But we also have a Facebook page and Instagram page. Anglers can follow that and any regulation changes or any issues and the fishery will come up on those pages, I believe we also have an email list that you can get on. And so if there are regulation changes or anything like that in the middle of the season, you still receive an email. And I think usually if you have a fishing license, you're automatically registered for some of these emails. So you'll receive them if there are emergency changes to different fisheries throughout the year.

Kristiana: Okay. Wow. I didn't know about the email list. Could I get the name of the Facebook and the Instagram page, if you don't mind, if you just put California Department official wildlife and Facebook or Instagram in the search for either those the first thing that will come up. Okay, cool. I'll make sure I link that at the bottom. Thank you. I did not know about the email chain as well. I'll definitely want to join that too. Last question. This one's a fun one. What's your favorite fish?

Otis: My favorite fish is the kelp bath or calico bass and I really like those fish just because I think it's a beautiful fish, especially when you see it underwater. Also, I do fish myself so it's a really fun fish to fish for and I just think they're really tough and when they get caught, they usually look really angry for some reason. I like that and that's why they're my favorite fish.

Kristiana: Their eyes are kind of weird. I do admit that. They're very rainbow looking, but yeah, that's all the questions I have for you. Thank you so much for joining me on this podcast and for letting me interview you today.

Otis: Thanks for having me.

Resources

https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDFW

https://www.instagram.com/accounts/login/?next=/californiadfw/

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/Marine

*There is only an email chain when an angler purchases their license*

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