Ocean

San Francisco, a city in western California is coextensive with San Francisco County. Famous for its beautiful setting, San Francisco is primarily located on the northern tip of a peninsula at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the strait known as Golden Gate on the north, San Francisco Bay on the east, and San Bruno Mountain on the south. Alcatraz, Angel, Farallon, Treasure, and Yerba Buena islands are part of the city.

POPULATION

The population of San Francisco increased from 678,974 in 1980 to 723,959 in 1990; the population was 735,315 in 1996. According to the 1990 census, whites constitute 53.6 percent of San Francisco’s population; Asians and Pacific Islanders, 29.1 percent; blacks, 10.9 percent; and Native Americans, 0.5 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, represent 13.3 percent of the population. San Francisco is part of a major metropolitan region that also includes Oakland and San Jose. The region’s population increased from 5,368,000 in 1980 to 6,253,000 in 1990, reaching an estimated 6,940,000 in 2004.

ECONOMY

San Francisco is a leading financial and international trade center for the western United States. The downtown financial district contains the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange; the headquarters of the 12th Federal Reserve District; and numerous banks and corporate office buildings, including the home office of the Bank of America, one of the largest banks in the world. Tourism is also important to the city’s economy. The San Francisco region is also home to many companies developing computer software and hardware. Several national apparel manufacturers also have headquarters in the city.

EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

The main institutions of higher education in San Francisco are San Francisco State University (1899), the University of San Francisco (1855), Golden Gate University (1853), the University of California-San Francisco (1864), the New College of California (1971), the University of California Hastings College of Law (1878), the San Francisco Art Institute (1871), the Academy of Art College (1929), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (1917), and a large community college. San Francisco has many performing-arts organizations. Among the best known are the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, and the American Conservatory Theater.

For more information, visit The San Francisco Help Center

David Chandler
For your FREE Stock Market Trading Mini Course:
“What The Wall Street Hot Shots Won’t Tell You!” go to: The Stock Market Genie

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If you are visiting the Los Angeles, California area you need to travel a wee bit south to beautiful Seal Beach. Named for the seals which used to inhabit the area, the town has all the charm of a beach community. Lovely tree lined streets and well kept homes are the town’s feature. When you want to have a little extra adventure and are lured by the salt air, take a walk on the pier which pushes out to the Pacific Ocean.

Once on the pier look to the north and see the mountain range seemingly rising up from the ocean’s floor. Look straight out and you will see the majestic Pacific. Yes, those are oil rigs jutting up out of the ocean! A bit of an eyesore, but necessary especially in this day of over dependence on oil imports. Are you hungry? Stop in at the restaurant located half way down the pier and get a bite to eat. Or, stroll back in town and have your pick of seafood restaurants.

Nearby to Seal Beach is Long Beach, which is the home of McDonnell-Douglas, the airplane manufacturer. Now owned by Boeing, much of the area surrounding Long Beach International is dedicated to aviation. Stop by the airport and see what a circa 1920s airport still looks like! Yes, it is functioning and it is a good alternate airport to LAX.

Los Angeles is a 20 minute drive to the north while Orange County and Anaheim are within an hour’s drive to the south. Of course, being that it is California, expect to be stuck in one of their wonderful traffic delays at some point. Hey, you could always return to bucolic Seal Beach and wait out the traffic!

Matt is a writer, web designer, and marketing expert who writes about business issues as well as places he has visited. Visit his chief site at http://www.corporateflyer.net and learn about the fantastic field of business aviation.

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Here is a case of bad news and more bad news for salmon fishermen.

Federal fish managers, based on a recommendation of the National Marine Fisheries Service, are considering closing down ocean salmon fishing from Point Falcon in Oregon to Point Sur in California.

The closure- which is scheduled to have a final vote in April-would basically decimate coastal salmon fishing operations, and despite federal disaster aid, essentially would put a fair number of salmon fishermen out of business.

The “canary in the mine” here, is the Klamath River and it’s resident salmon which have found it hard to spawn in yet another screwed up river system.

I’m not a scientist-but there appears to be a direct corelation to the massive die-off of Klamath Salmon back in 2002. (For those who do not remember, back in the water tight year of 2002, precious Klamath Basin water was diverted to southern Oregon and northern California ranches and farms to protect their interests.) I also do not claim to be a water management expert-although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once- but it appears that inland water managers might want to shake hands with marine fishery managers, especially when inland rivers drain directly into oceans. The fact that a river born, sea raised salmon, sometimes has to travel hundreds of miles to spawn their young, tells me there is some cause and effect as to what takes place “upstream”.

So why would an alfalfa grower, rancher or any water user for that matter, think that their blatant disregard for those that are “downstream”, won’t have an effect at some point?

Hmmmm?

I’ll let you come up with the answer.

All I know, is that if nothing is done, we will have another ruined river.

The double dose of bad news here is, if the closure takes place, guess what?

Fishermen will head north.

Washington and Alaska will get some folks who will be suddenly interested in relocation.

And of course with more boats and fishermen and pressure on the salmon(despite quotas) the next place you will be hearing about closures and angry fishermen-will be Washington and Alaska.

The good news, if there is any, is that salmon fishing in any river in the affected area, such as the Rogue & Chetco should be phenomenal this year. Without any competition from commercial ocean fishermen and ocean sport fishermen, river salmon fishermen will have the fish all too themselves.

So stay tuned to April 2nd and the decisions that will be made.

The future of both Klamath River Salmon and California commercial fishermen, may hang in the balance.

A.J. Klott is the author of “the Fish wRap” the first official fishing blog to become a book.He is also the inventor of fly tacks. The most important invention since the iruncible spoon…
visit him at:
http://www.twoguyswithflys.com

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