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Sports

Video: Gray Whale Fluke, Tons of Dolphin Fine

You'll see a gray whale on its way to Baja, humongous dolphin pods, the sights and sounds of the harbor and a whole lot of great rockfishing.

The final weekend of rockfishing was a fun and productive one for many anglers as the bite remained good for most. The season is closed form Jan. 1, through March 1. Besides a chance to see gray whales and huge pods of dolphin, anglers were able to catch some fresh delicious fish for their New Year celebration too.

On board the Westerly out of Long Beach Sportfishing, anglers were treated to some incredible spectacles of nature over the past week. Besides gray whales and lots of dolphin, there were some smaller fin whales lunge feeding out near the oil rigs off Huntington Beach.

Fishing for rockfish was productive for a variety of the over 50 different species of bottom dwellers that inhabit our coast.

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The New Year brings with it Southern California’s newly established marine protected areas. They go into effect Jan. 1, and it will be up to anglers to know where and where they cannot fish.

The Department of Fish and Game, in a news release, stated that wardens will be on the water and "will take appropriate enforcement actions, which could include education, warning, citation or arrest, depending on the violation."

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Anglers can find maps at www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scmpas_list.asp. They can also access information about the closed and restricted waters on their iPhones, iPads and Android devices by visitinghttp://www.dfg.ca.gov/m/MPA and following instructions on the MPA mobile website.

With the App they can look up marine parks, reserves and conservation areas by name, or find these areas by county. They can look up maps and regulations, and can also track their locations using the GPS on their mobile devices, to see if they've crossed an MPA boundary.

Ignorance of the law will be no excuse.

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