Western Outdoor News Editorial

[fishingfool]

This was in WON July 24th. Don't know if anyone Saw this or not.

Wardens say ‘stop MLPA process’

The California Fish and Game Wardens’ Association has now joined the chorus of voices calling for a stop to the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative process, admitting to all that even if more closures are created by the act, they don’t have the personnel or the boats to enforce the no-fishing zones.
We’re as tired of writing about the MLPA as you are of reading about it, but that’s exactly what the anti-fishing, environmental zealots who are now firmly in charge of the process want: for us to turn our backs and let them shut down our entire coast to sportfishing.
But we’re not going to do that. And we hope you don’t either.
The Game Wardens’ Association sent their letter to Ms. Cindy Gustafson, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, asking for a “halt in the process and implementation” of the MLPA.
“Any new responsibilities placed on game wardens would be impossible to undertake with the current shortage of wardens and recent furloughs,” read the letter.
So where, exactly, do we sit with the MLPA now?
The Central Coast of California has already gone through the process, and a failure on the part of planners to adopt what the fishermen asked for meant many of the safest areas (i.e., close to port) for recreational anglers are now off-limits, while many commercial fishermen were simply put out of business.
The South Coast of California has already gone through the process, but it looks like the hard work of both recreational and commercial anglers to develop a workable array of Marine Protected Areas will be set aside due to the complaints of the anti-fishing faction. Especially since the entire funding is now coming from the environmental side, which wants fishing banned almost everywhere and is using the process to create the biggest closures possible.
The closures along the North Central Coast are one commission vote away from reality. Again, the commissioners are on track to ignore the designs recommended by the fishermen who participated in the process and create a massive closure that threatens to wipe out the abalone population in the few areas that will remain open to take.
Recently joining the throngs of those who have major problems with the current MLPA process are the elected officials of the North Central Coast. They sent a letter to Natural Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman asking that the process be halted.
“The letter was signed by all three North Coast county board of supervisors, plus city councils from Point Arena to Crescent City, harbor districts and some of the tribes, all asking for a suspension of the MLPA on the North Coast until the mapping data is complete and the funding is secure,” Jim Martin of Fort Bragg and the Recreation Fishing Alliance told WON. “This is what Chrisman is characterizing as a ‘vocal minority.’”
Whether the millions of people who fish or rely on fishing for a living are a minority is not the question. The question is when will we be heard?
Speak now or forever hold your peace.