REGION: Fishing industry braces for ocean protected areas

Stakeholder group to be selected in September

By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer | Sunday, August 17, 2008 5:42 PM PDT ∞

Fishermen are bracing for the possibility that a state plan to designate new protected marine areas along the San Diego County coast by summer 2010 will shut down their favorite fishing holes.

Whatever the California Fish and Game Commission decides to do will have a huge impact on someone's livelihood and someone else's hobby, said Bob Fletcher, president of the San Diego-based Sportfishing Association of California, in a telephone interview last week.

"There's not one square mile of ocean here that isn't somebody's favorite fishing ground," he said.

Consequently, anglers are scrambling to find a way to weather the approaching economic storm.

Coming in the form of something called the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, that storm was set in motion by a 1999 state law that ordered a redesign of California's collection of protected ocean waters, something that has been pieced together haphazardly along the state's 1,100-mile coastline over the last century.

Delayed by a lack of funding and overwhelming opposition from fishermen early this decade, the state recently succeeded at retooling protected areas along the central and northern coast.

Now they are ready to tackle the more daunting challenge of drawing up new boundaries for preserves off the coast of Southern California, where most of the fishermen live.

Melissa Miller-Henson, program manager for the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, a public-private partnership formed by the Department of Fish and Game to oversee that effort, said the goal is to ensure a healthy ocean environment over the long haul by devising a coordinated network of protected areas.

The no-fishing zone

Anglers already operate around some protected areas.

Forty-three such areas are along the Southern California coast. Those span more than 180 square miles, or nearly 7 percent, of the 2,355 square miles of state-governed waters between Santa Barbara and the U.S.-Mexico border.

In the San Diego area, the lagoons of North County account for several protected areas. Those are mostly classified as marine parks, which ban commercial fishing but allow some recreational fishing.

The exception is the eastern shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, a marine reserve in Carlsbad where fishing is banned.

Also, there are marine conservation areas along the shores of Encinitas and La Jolla. In those types of preserves, typically some recreational and commercial fishing is permitted.

Fletcher, the recreational fishing president, said fishermen prefer conservation areas to reserves because they are flexible.

"A marine reserve is a no-fishing zone," he said.

Fishermen anticipate that about 20 percent of the ocean off Southern California, in the 3-mile-wide strip over which the state has jurisdiction, will come under some sort of restriction as a result of the redesign that is getting under way.

They base that estimate on the two previous efforts, in 2007 and earlier this year, to redesign systems of protected areas in Central and Northern California.

Those led to 18 percent and 20 percent of waters, respectively, being placed under some type of restriction, state officials said.

The size is one concern for local fishermen. Their plight also will depend on the type of protected areas that ultimately are selected, and on where they are located.

If most turn out to be in the heart of the best fishing holes, where, say, 80 percent of the fish are caught, it could prove disastrous for the industry, said "Big" Joe Exline, secretary of the 200-member Oceanside Anglers Club.

"If they close the wrong places, it could hurt," Exline said.

Packed like sardines

When stacked against the rest of San Diego County's $168 billion-a-year economy, the commercial fishing industry isn't all that big. In fact, it is a lightweight ---- so much so that it is not even on the radar of regional economists, who are focused on the fortunes of the military, biotechnology, information and retail trade.

Its contribution to the economy has declined in recent years, from $119 million in 2001 to $107 million in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The region's commercial fishing industry was much bigger in the past.

"We used to be a big home port for the tuna industry," said Marney Cox, chief economist for the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning agency.

Cox said fishing generated $642 million for the local economy ---- in today's dollars ---- in the heyday of tuna in 1975.

But the tuna fishermen and canners were driven out by a chain of events that had its roots in the fledgling environmental movement of the 1970s and the worldwide alarm about dolphins becoming entangled ---- and killed ---- in massive nets a mile long.

Still, fishing remains an integral part of life in the county, particularly among those who like to fish for fun instead of for a living.

Recreational fishing is big business in places such as Oceanside Harbor, which tends to be packed like sardines on holidays and hot summer weekends.

"Over the weekend (of Aug. 9 and 10), it was an absolute madhouse down there," said Stan Hogan, president of the 200-plus-member Oceanside Anglers Club. "You couldn't find a parking space anywhere."

Recreational fishing is a $1.3 billion industry in California that is enjoyed by about 760,000 anglers, according to the American Sportfishing Association.

Going the way of the tuna

And while the commercial fishing industry is hardly the giant it once was, there remains a thriving cadre of fishermen who earn their livelihood catching lobster, halibut, sea urchins, anchovies, thresher sharks and sea bass.

The California Department of Fish and Game reported that 2.6 million pounds of fish were caught off the coast of San Diego County in 2006, for a combined value of $7.1 million.

At Oceanside Harbor, nearly 463,000 pounds of fish were unloaded for a cash haul of $1.6 million.

California spiny lobster was the most valuable catch at Oceanside, at about $583,700 for more than 65,000 pounds, the report shows.

One of those who catches lobster is John Guth, president of the Vista-based California Lobster and Trap Fishermen's Association, a commercial fishing group.

"Our catch rates have gone up through the years," Guth said. "The year before last was exceptional."

But Guth and others worry that the current success could unravel in a hurry, much as the tuna fishing business did a couple of decades ago, in the wake of the latest environmental initiative.

The players

Miller-Henson, of the marine life initiative, said their concerns will be addressed because some of the 35 or so slots on a stakeholder group that will craft a proposal for protected areas over the next year are being reserved for fishermen.

Others will be awarded to environmentalists and academics.

Miller-Henson said the members will be announced by late September.

The stakeholder group will turn over its recommendation to a seven-member, blue-ribbon task force, which will refine the plan before the Fish and Game Commission adopts a final product around June 2010, she said.

Earlier this month, the task force members were named. One of them is former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

The task force is scheduled to hold its first meeting Sept. 8 in San Diego.

Miller-Henson said the goal is an outcome that is fair for everyone ---- including the fishermen.

"I know they don't feel that way," she said. "But fishermen are part of the overall picture. Making sure that we have a healthy ecosystem benefits all of us, including fishermen. That, hopefully, will make for more fish and bigger fish, which, hopefully, will make the fisherman happy."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.

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