Your Public comment has helped!!!!!!!

[Holy Mackerel]

There are meetings in SD next month, details to come. EVERYONE is invited!!!!

Copied from Zenspearo:

Some good news--some mixed news--some remains to be worked. The trend is good, but there is much much work to be done as can be seen.

See here.

http://spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=84573

From Terry Maas and Eric Kett, our RSG reps.

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Public testimony saves the day-MLPA Santa Ana

Still trying to recover from the last 3 marathon days, work today and finally diving on the weekend so Eric and I will have a complete report early next week.
Cutting to the chase, the testimony you folks gave as well as other impassioned fishermen really helped make our jobs easier when it came to horse trading. Almost every RSG member stayed to 1:00am to hear the last public speaker. Three to one, those favored more reasonable arrays. The conservative side highlighted rich wives from Pt. Dume who basically said they loved to kayak and fish, just not off their beach front property. The folks who made External C claimed to have modified their proposal to be more fisher friendly. You would not know that by all the red they presented.

At the end of 3 days, two of the break out groups compromised on proposed arrays looking a lot like External A, the FIN proposal (fisher friendly.) One group could not settle on a single array so it was placed into the pot for a “winnowing” vote by all members. The results will not be announced until Tuesday, but my bet is that it will be, again, more fisher friendly.

There are still some pretty ugly shapes in each proposal. You all will have a chance to review all proposals early next month. Again, your public speaking will be very important. Laguna is one of the toughest spots because of the size and spacing guidelines imposed by the SAT and because of the sewer outfall to the South, which prevents us from sliding the MPA south to help access issues. We regret this. The same goes for Coal Oil Point in Santa Barbara. Almost everyone included the campus and the points in their proposals—tradeoffs for other locations. Many proposals still close Pt. Dume and Paradise, but several do not. Deep Hole at County Line seems to be spared by most proposals.

At PV, most proposals save 90- to 100% of the North face. The ones that encroach here fan out from shore, which keeps more of the wsb hunting area in. La Jolla was the big winner, at least for now. Many arrays substituted an MPA just south of the Mission Bay opening for La Jolla, especially when connected with Del Mar.

There have some dynamics developing, which are very important for divers. By your efforts in communication and hard work, we now stand at the fihsermen’s table as an equal partner. We have become members of the FIN (Thanks Paul R.) and the PSO. In almost every array, exceptions are made for the high Level of Protection that spearing for coastal pelagics allows. Instead of the old rhetoric that spearfishing is a bad sport, we have been elevated as one of the most sustainable and selective of fishing groups. This is something we should all be very proud of.

Terry
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