South Laguna Off Hook as Site for Fishery Reserve

Because of opposition from fishermen and other interests, the state Department of Fish and Game recommended Wednesday that an area off South Laguna not become a primary reserve for fishery research.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Dana Point and charter fishing operations in Dana Point Harbor were among those objecting to designating the two-square-mile ocean area near Salt Creek Beach as a marine ecological reserve, said Rolf Mall, chief of the department’s marine resources division.

“There was a lot of expression of concern about the South Laguna alternative,” Mall said, so Laguna Beach was named only on a proposed backup list of sites that the department recommended for approval to the Fish and Game Commission.

Proposition 132, the Marine Resources Protection Act, was passed by voters in 1990 and requires creating four ocean reserves by Jan. 1, 1994.

The four areas that the department staff recommended, Mall said, are the King Range in Humboldt County, Big Creek in Monterey County, Vandenberg in Santa Barbara County and Big Sycamore Canyon in Ventura County.

He said that, while surfing and swimming probably would be protected in the designated areas by federal navigation laws, “there is no doubt it would prohibit public fishing.”

Mall said the commission will hear public testimony on the recommended marine reserves Friday in Sacramento and Oct. 7 in San Diego. The commission is expected to act on the staff’s recommendations in November.