DANA POINT : City Acts to Set Up Marine Reserve Area

The City Council tonight will review the first steps toward establishing a highly protected marine reserve in a two-square-mile offshore area stretching around the Dana Point Headlands to Monarch Bay.

If designated a reserve, the offshore area--which now has the less-stringent status of marine life refuge--would become off-limits to all commercial and recreational fishing, according to Edward M. Knight, the city’s director of community development.

“It would basically change from a limited (fishing) take to a no-take area,” Knight said, adding that the Orange County Marine Institute supports the status change.

Under the offshore area’s current status, licensed sports fishermen may remove such sea creatures as abalone, lobster, bonito, rockfish, halibut, perch and several types of bass. With the proposed status change, no sea life could be taken from the reserve.

No objections from the local commercial fishing industry are expected, said Harry Helling, associate director of the Orange County Marine Institute.

“The area that we’re talking about is not one that is fished commercially,” Helling said. “The largest resistance will come from the casual shore fisherman . . . such as those who enjoy surf fishing along The Strand beach.”

Maintaining a reserve will help generate more marine life for the commercial fishing industry, Helling said.

“When you can protect an area with such a high diversity of animal and plants, it can serve to replenish other areas,” Helling said. “Without such reserve areas, then you’re looking at a larger problem.”

The change in status was prompted by Proposition 132, which authorized the state Department of Fish and Game to establish four new offshore reserve areas per year, starting in 1993, Helling said. It would also help preserve an area that is often disturbed by tourists, he added.

“Upwards of 90% of the people who visit the area leave with (some sort of sea life) in their hands,” Helling said. “We need help in educating people as to what they can and cannot do.”

Before the offshore area could be designated a reserve, a resolution by the City Council and local public hearings would be necessary, Knight said.

“This is still in the early stages,” he added.