Concerning your recent article, "A sanctuary in full" (Sept. 21), the questions to ask are: What have these marine sanctuaries accomplished? What have the citizens.
Concerning your recent article on Pismo clams ("Clam poaching tops Fish and Wildlife-related crimes in SLO County," Oct. 6), the cause of decline is not.
I read with interest, the
New Times article on Diablo Canyon sea water intake and discharge, Changed habitat (Dec. 17, 2020). Clearly, evidence does exist of the huge volume of planktonic sea life killed every year. However, it has apparently been forgotten that in the early days of Diablo Canyon, we still had an abalone fishery in San Luis Obispo County. Similarly, the red sea urchin fishery was founded at Port San Luis about 1972. At this time, too, we could still fish for clams at Pismo Beach and Morro Bay. Most of these shellfish resources went away before and during the early Diablo days. Did Diablo Canyon Power Plant eliminate these food resources? No. This loss was caused by sea otters, not fishing, not Diablo Canyon seawater intake/discharges. And, this did not occur just at Point Buchon. These fishery losses occurred over an approximate 300 miles of coastline, north of Monterey to northern Santa Barbara County.