Anglers Seek Support at Show

Next week at this time, the ocean could come alive with albacore, yellowtail or other popular game fish, and it would practically go unnoticed.

That’s because a different kind of frenzy will be in progress on shore.

The annual five-day celebration of a new fishing season, known as the Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show, begins Wednesday at the Long Beach Convention Center. Tens of thousands of anglers will convene to stock up on the latest in gear and tackle, and learn from experts when and where to go and what to do once they get there.

This is as big an event as the season’s first runs on any of the so-called “exotics”; in its 55th year, as much a tradition as the Eastern Sierra trout season opener.

This year, however, the show will be about more than just fun and games. The mood will be tempered by an important issue--the seemingly imminent closure of many prime fishing grounds.

“This is something that will affect all of us,” said Tom Raftican, president of the United Anglers of Southern California. “It’s a saltwater issue right now, but clearly it’ll become a freshwater issue in the future.”

United Anglers will use the show as a platform to seek “broader support” for what already is a hotly contested battle between fishermen and environmental groups over marine protected areas, or MPAs.

The creation of MPAs, designed to help the recovery and conservation of several species of rockfish and other bottom fishes, was mandated as part of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act.

That plan was to have been finalized this year, but the issue generated such a furor that the Department of Fish and Game requested an extension so it could restart the process, set up committees and obtain more input from those who would be most affected by closures.

An extension was granted by the Legislature and the California Fish and Game Commission now has until Dec. 1, 2003, to adopt a version of the DFG’s plan.

Meanwhile, a separate process dealing with the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is underway. And because this issue will be decided much sooner--the adoption hearing is Aug. 1-2 in San Luis Obispo--it is of more immediate concern to all parties involved.

Proposed regulations include six alternative networks protecting 12% to 34% of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary waters; an alternative for no change to the existing system; and an alternative to include the Channel Islands marine reserves process with the coast-wide process under the Marine Life Protection Act.

A science panel within the Marine Reserve Working Group recommended closing 30% to 50% of sanctuary waters to fishing. The DFG and sanctuary manager have proposed closing 25%.

Environmental groups, naturally, support maximum closure. Sportfishing interests favor the latter alternative because, “Stakeholders need to have the ability to look at the whole area around the Channel Islands and the mainland and come up with a comprehensive decision on a network [of reserves] they can support,” said Bob Fletcher, president of the Sportfishing Assn. of California.

“Splitting out [Channel Islands] waters and having that as a separate process cripples the committee members’ ability to mix and match closed areas in a way that will allow for the creation of some marine reserves while minimizing economic loss to the fishing communities and the industries that rely on access to productive fishing grounds.”

The matter will be discussed March 7 during the Fish and Game Commission’s 10 a.m. meeting at Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in San Diego. Public testimony on the issue is the fifth item on the agenda, meaning it will probably begin sometime before the 2 p.m. opening of the Fred Hall show.

At about the same time, Mike Nussman, president of the American Sportfishing Assn., will be conducting a news conference at the show to announce results of an independent study ASA spokesman Forbes Darby said “shines new light on the economics used to evaluate closures in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.”

Darby wouldn’t elaborate, but added, “They significantly underestimated what closing off large percentages of the sanctuary to sportfishing would do to California’s economy.”

Proponents of MPAs won’t have a presence at the show, but they will be well represented at the Fish and Game Commission meeting, just as they’ve been at previous meetings.

Their latest weapon is a poll commissioned by the conservation group SeaWeb, showing that 71% of Californians favor the creation of marine reserves.

In advance of the meeting, the National Resources Defense Council issued a news release warning of an ocean in peril and touting MPAs as the best means by which sea creatures can be saved.

“In the United States, where our terrestrial park and wilderness system is a cherished treasure, the idea of comparable sites in the ocean was long overdue,” the NRDC’s release said.

The group is armed with results of studies revealing the apparent success of reserves in other states. One example is a no-take sanctuary near the Kennedy Space Station in Florida, where more and larger fish are being found.

Sportfishing industry leaders claim the findings have more to do with the banning of gill-nets--previously used by commercial fishermen within the reserve--and not with the removal of hook-and-line anglers, whose impact, they maintain, was negligible.

Raftican says that the banning of gill-nets 10 years ago off California is having the same effect in our waters, pointing to impressive recent runs of white sea bass and halibut.

Environmental groups are adamant that traditional management techniques, such as catch and size limits, aren’t working and point to the decline of certain species of rockfish. Sportfishing groups are just as adamant that nature’s cycles have been a factor in the plight of rockfish, which are highly susceptible to warm-water events such as El Ninos.

MPAs might be beneficial to some degree, they grudgingly acknowledge, but they are not a proven management tool, nor the cure to what ails our fisheries.

“We need to be talking about integrating the use of marine reserves with fisheries management, not using reserves as the tool by placing reserves at the magnitude proposed by the MRWG co-chairs and the environmentalists,” says Fletcher, a former DFG deputy director.

That, of course, is ultimately up to the appointed commission members, who by now must be wishing they had stuck to their real jobs.

Not much has changed for this year’s show, which will feature more than 2,000 tackle, boating and travel displays. The popular Bongos Girls fashion show is back, as is the kids-fish-free fishing pond, and there will be hourly seminars featuring local and national experts. Among new attractions: The Paul Bunyan Lumberjacks show; a kayak demonstration pool; and bass-fishing guru Jimmy Houston, who will appear Wednesday only at the Shimano booth.

Hours are 2-10 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults and free for those 15 and younger.

Freshwater Fishing

News item: Robert Vandevelde of Whittier catches a 26.08-pound rainbow trout at Santa Ana River Lakes, setting a potential state record (the current record is a 23-pounder caught two years ago in Northern California’s Lake Natoma).

Reaction: Big deal. Vandevelde’s catch came less than a week after another potential record rainbow was pulled from the small Anaheim fishery.

Both fish were purchased at record size from a private hatchery and stocked days earlier, proving only that hatcheries are getting better at growing fish. When one of them grows a rainbow that can beat the all-tackle world-record 42.2-pounder caught 32 years ago at Bell Island, Alaska, now that’ll be a big deal. And you can bet SARL reps will be there to purchase it.

Hunting

The spring turkey-hunting season begins March 30 and a successful hunter is making the rounds. Wayne Carlton, whose calling techniques have enabled him to shoot gobblers in 11 states, will give free seminars Thursday night at 6 at Turner’s Outdoorsman in West Covina, and next Friday night at 6 at the chain’s San Marcos store. Details: (626) 858-8948 and (760) 741-1570, respectively. On March 9, he will headline Spring Turkey Hunting Day at Raahauge’s Shooting Enterprises in Norco. Details: (909) 735-7981.

Whale Watching

The American Cetacean Society’s annual “Around Catalina With John Olguin” trip is March 9, embarking from the Catalina Express Terminal in San Pedro at 9:30 a.m. and returning at 4 p.m. Olguin is the director emeritus of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. The trip is timed to coincide with the peak northbound migration of California gray whales. Cost is $40 for adults, $35 for ACS members and seniors, and $25 for children 12 and under. Details: (310) 548-6279.