Fishermen, Surfers Roil Waters at Pier : Using a Diplomatic Liaison Officer to Seek Peaceful Coexistence Is Good Approach

Fishermen keep trying to catch fish off the Huntington Beach pier. And surfers keep trying to catch a good wave around and under the pier. And all the Huntington Beach City Council seems to be catching is hell from both groups.

Talk about “pier pressure.” Ever since the long-awaited replacement pier was opened last July the people casting their fishing lines from above and the surfers below have been feuding, each group believing that it has a greater right to pursue recreational pleasure.

Surfers complain about getting entangled in fishing lines and caught by hooks. And the anglers on the pier say their lines have been cut. Both groups want the other banned.

It’s too bad that there is so much wrangling over the popular pier so soon after its successful reopening. The pier is a major attraction to resident and tourist alike. Fishing off it is as old a tradition as the original structure 74 years ago. But so is surfing in the coastal community that proudly has tagged itself “Surf City.”

The City Council, seeking to resolve differences between surfers and fishermen, or at least achieve a state of peaceful coexistence, has launched an experimental program that employs the new position of “pier liaison officer.” The aim is to have a third party on hand to patrol the pier, mediate disputes and generally keep conditions cool between the warring sports enthusiasts. The officer will have to be a master diplomat, but the program offers a good way to diffuse an increasingly volatile situation.

Huntington Beach has been relatively successful in resolving recreational disputes, a fact its neighbor downcoast in Newport Beach could take note of in its current dilemma involving skateboarders.

Newport Beach is considering banning skateboards from the oceanfront boardwalk during the summer and on weekends. That’s a proposal that understandably pleases some but rankles the skateboarders who already have been banned from the area by the Newport Pier. They argue that they have fewer places to pursue their sport. And that communities provide bike lanes for bicyclists, so why not designated areas for skateboarders?

It’s a fair question. When faced with a similar problem, Huntington Beach banned skateboards. But it has plans to build some small skateboard parks that will provide a place for the boarders without endangering pedestrians and raising the hackles of residents and merchants. Wouldn’t that help keep the recreational peace in Newport Beach, too?