300 Denounce Plan to Limit Fishing Area

At least 300 fishermen peacefully protested in front of Channel Islands National Park’s offices in the Ventura Harbor on Wednesday, venting their anger at a federal proposal to limit fishing around the islands.

National Park Service spokeswoman Carol Spears said the “no-take” zones to be proposed to the state Fish and Game Commission in early April would allow marine animals safe areas to mature, grow and reproduce, which will in effect “replenish the entire ecosystem,” eventually benefiting fishermen as well as the public.

But protesting fishermen described the proposed protections as meddling by the Park Service.

“We love the environment,” Ventura halibut fisherman Eric Hooper said. “We want to be able to do this for years.”

Although all the details have not yet been worked out, the Park Service is recommending that 20% of the waters within a mile of the five Channel Islands be closed to fishing. While 80% would remain open, protesters fear that these will be the least productive areas.

The no-take proposal is backed by the Channel Islands Marine Resource Restoration Committee, an Oxnard-based group of residents from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The proposal is supported by an October report from Park Service scientist Gary Davis that concluded the Pacific Ocean is being overfished.

Davis uses the virtual disappearance of the white abalone--a drop of 99.99% in the last 25 years--as an example of ocean overuse. In the report, he writes that people need “to get past the denial that fishing caused the population collapse.”

The answer to this problem, according to Davis, has four steps: locate surviving fish, collect the brood stock, breed a new generation and establish no-take zones.

Many fishermen at Wednesday’s protest, who came from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, were particularly enraged that Davis blames them for the collapse of the white abalone population.

They say pollution, global warming, the disappearance of kelp and hungry sea otters imported from Monterey are the more likely culprits for the decline.

Many protesters--carrying signs with such slogans as “No Take, No Jobs” and “Stop the Federal Takeover”--said the ocean is full of fish. Lobster and yellowtail fishermen said this is one of their best years, with warm El Nino waters pushing the tropical species toward the Channel Islands.

“These exotic fish, some are healthier than they’ve ever been,” said James McClelland, 62, an urchin fisherman.

At least one scientist with no personal stake in the dispute, however, disagrees.

Despite fishermen’s claims that the ocean is healthy, a marine biologist from UC Santa Barbara disagrees.

“The ocean is not OK,” said Jack Engle, who scuba dives around the Channel Islands at least six times a year. “They can argue it’s pollution or the weather, but we keep seeing the same things. This serial depletion [of fish] is a real thing.”

If fish populations are waning, fishermen said, pollution is more likely the culprit than fishing.

“They’re blaming us for the problem, but pollution is a big factor,” McClelland said. “The kelp beds are dying too and we didn’t do it.”

To many of these fishermen, the Park Service is abusing its power by seeking to control waters traditionally regulated by the state Department of Fish and Game.

“They’re empire-building,” swordfish fisherman Chris Williams said.

“This is about Gary Davis and the Feds trying to come in and control state waters with manipulated data and a media campaign,” fisherman Chris Miller said.

Davis was out of town Wednesday, and other Park Service officials declined to meet with protesters. Later, however, Spears met with reporters in her office and denied that the Park Service wants to expand its control of channel waters.

Moreover, Spears contends, a limited version of a no-take zone is already working at Anacapa Island.

“This is an emotional issue and the fishermen are feeling lots of things,” she said.

Fishermen admit to having strong feelings, arguing that they have a more fundamental interest in the health of the ocean than do scientists.

“You get rid of us and you get rid of the monitors of the ocean,” urchin fisherman Dan Brainerd said. “And we’re painted as the pillagers.”