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Fisher-Friendly Plan Urged: Concern Over Marine Protected Areas

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 June 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Jun. 13--An alliance of commercial and sport fishers is urging the state Fish and Game Commission to lean toward keeping the coast fisher-friendly when it adopts a network of marine protected areas this year.

The California Fisheries Coalition today released a "peer review" it has commissioned of proposals for establishing protected areas as part of the state Marine Life Protection Act of 1999.

The review, compiled by three marine scientists, contends that existing fisheries regulations have already accomplished much of the ecosystem protections mandated by the act.

The marine protected area issue was discussed up and down the state last year by a blue ribbon panel, which concluded its work early this year. The issue is now awaiting a decision from the Fish and Game Commission, which is considering three different package proposals developed by the panel and its science advisory team.

The coalition document was prepared by three West Coast fisheries biologists: Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington; Carl Walters of the University of British Columbia, and Richard Parrish, who retired this year from the National Marine Fisheries Service. It is intended, according to coalition officials, to correct assertions made by the state's 18-member science advisory team.

Fish and Game is considering three options and the document prepared by the California Fisheries Coalition finds each will benefit the state's marine species about equally. However, the coalition believes that two of the state proposals would close about 40 percent of its most productive ocean fishing grounds.

The third alternative leaves more areas open to fishing and would have less impact on coastal communities dependent on fishing, Parrish said.

"The Central Coast has abundant fisheries," said Kathy Fosmark of Pebble Beach, co-chairwoman of the Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries in Monterey. "We have not seen that localized fishing restrictions in marine protected areas will do anything for ocean protection."

Fish stocks are coming back from a decline, she said. Fishing off the California Coast is a $5 billion-a-year industry serving a large group of consumers who eat fresh seafood. "Strong fishery management," Fosmark said, "is keeping the fishery strong."

Parrish said the original Marine Life Protection Act envisioned seven marine habitats that needed protecting, which was later expanded by the science advisory team to 20, and the result was a proposal for 30-plus marine protected areas in Central California, with the potential for 100 such areas along the state's entire coast from Oregon to Mexico.

Overprotecting some parts of the coast, he said, will displace fishermen to unregulated areas, and since the abundant food fish they seek migrate a lot, the end result is that the act won't extend any additional protection.

Scientists, including himself, have researched fish populations along the coast, but not much follow-up work has been done, Parrish said.

Findings in the coalition report were disputed by others who have been involved in the marine protection plan.

"It's not a peer review," said Kaitlin Gaffney, program manager for the Ocean Conservancy in Santa Cruz, one of the organizations that has been working on the marine protection plan.

Gaffney, an attorney with the Ocean Conservancy, said there are "no real surprises in this report. Many of the arguments in the report have been made by opponents of marine protected areas over the past two years and basically boil down to preference for relying on existing fisheries management over MPAs."

But, she said, scientists, the state Legislature and 70 percent of Californians support the creation of protected areas to improve the health of the ocean and help support fisheries.

The report places a lot of confidence in existing fisheries management efforts, Gaffney said, but "the fact is inescapable that our oceans are in trouble."

Many West Coast species are at populations of 10 percent of what they once were, she said. Also, the state's commercial fishing fleet is half the size it was in the early 1990s, and in 2000, the federal government declared the groundfish fishery a disaster, she added

Protected areas "are a proven tool that have been used successfully all around the world," Gaffney said, " and they protect far more than just commercially important species."

She also disputed the assertion by the fisheries group that two proposals recommend closing 40 percent of the fishing ground, adding that more than 90 percent of important fishing grounds would remain unaffected by any of the proposals.

Fishermen's concerns were taken seriously, she said, adding that "I am very confident in the level of scientific review and analysis that has gone on so far."

The California Fisheries Coalition includes 23 sport and commercial fishing associations, seafood processors, abalone growers, kelp harvesters and others.

montereyherald.com.

For information on the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and the coalition, or to obtain a copy of the report, visit www.calfisheriescoalition.org

Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)

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