Coalition Sues Over No-Fishing Zones

A coalition of fishing groups has sued the state Fish and Game Commission, seeking to block creation of new marine reserves around the Channel Islands.

The groups say that commissioners illegally ignored their objections to the no-fishing zones, used flawed science and violated state environmental laws when they set boundaries for the reserves in October. The zones are to go into effect early next year.

Commercial fishermen say the restrictions would devastate their livelihood while doing little to protect sensitive species of fish around the islands off the coast of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

The 70-member Ventura County Commercial Fishermen’s Assn., along with other groups representing hundreds of thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen in California, filed the lawsuit earlier this month in Ventura County Superior Court. They are seeking an order temporarily blocking the creation of the reserves, and then a permanent injunction.

No court hearings have been scheduled, and Fish and Game officials are still reviewing the complaint and petition, staff counsel John Mattox said.

“Both the department and the commission are confident that they fully complied with the law in establishing the marine protective areas in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary,” he said.

To replenish the populations of a wide array of fish and shellfish, the commission banned fishing within a 175-square-mile network around the five Channel Islands. It is one of the largest marine reserves in U.S. waters.

Ventura County fisherman Chris Hoeflinger said the public comment process on the state regulations was a sham and did not follow the California Environmental Quality Act.

The state’s fishing regulators had already decided what they were going to do, Hoeflinger said, “and we were just put through kind of a kangaroo court of a process that didn’t account for any of our input and concerns along the way.”

Fishermen fear that the Channel Islands ban will lead quickly to over-restrictive no-fishing zones and conservation areas up and down California’s 1,150-mile coastline. State law requires a draft map of such a network by 2005.

Around the Channel Islands, the regulations were to have taken effect Jan. 1, but because of delays in getting the legal wording reviewed, it could be several months before the ban begins.

Colder currents around the Channel Islands have made for a good year for lobster and crab fishermen and a terrific year for sea bass and halibut fishermen.

To Tim Athens, who has been fishing commercially for 12 years, the fish population seems healthier than ever.

“If I can go out in less time, catch more fish than I have ever caught and I’m getting more money than ever for them, it seems to me things are pretty good,” Athens said.

Fishermen contend that by shrinking the area where they fish, regulators will actually harm fish by forcing boats into a smaller area.

“We’re forced to fish unsustainably; we’re forced to over-fish,” Hoeflinger said.

A marine biologist for the Department of Fish and Game said there is no evidence from protected areas elsewhere in the world that suggests that will happen.

“You actually have better catches” outside reserves, John Ugoretz said.