BY PAUL LEBOWITZ

WON Staff Writer

Editor's note: a more detailed story and sidebar on what areas will be impacted and what the timetable for the lawsuit and/or closures will be in effect is forthcoming in WON. In this fourth web update from the meeting, added are five photos and the updated map with last-minute changes,    as well as imbedded video).   

SANTA BARBARA – It’s all over but the crying and the court battle. By a bare majority, the California Fish and Game approved a sweeping set of new MLPA reserves for the Southern California coast on a 3-2 vote.

Commissioners Michael Sutton, Richard B Rogers and Jack Baylis weren’t swayed by evidence that the closure plan under consideration, termed the Integrated Preferred Alternative, came together in secret meetings held by the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force. Commissioners Dan W. Richards and Jim Kellogg voted no.

Attorneys for the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans, a coalition of sportfishing groups including the United Anglers of Southern California, the Sportfishing Association of California and others, cautioned the commission that the entire MLPA program is vulnerable to legal challenge due to these closed-door dealings and additional technical flaws.  

“You don’t change what you’re doing by threat of legal action. This legal business, good try, you can client pound all you like… Bring it!” Rogers provocatively asserted, daring a legal battle. 

Richards pointed out the state doesn’t have the money to properly monitor and enforce the new closures. “There’s no possible way in five or ten years we’ll have collected adequate documentation. This department is in a catastrophe. We’re not doing 100s of things we’re supposed to. The wardens to my knowledge have never opposed anything. And this one, they’re adamant,” Richards said. 

Minus a court challenge, the new marine protected areas should go into effect in roughly a year. Large ‘backbone’ reserves are set for south La Jolla, most of the Laguna coast, south Palos Verdes, Malibu’s Pt Dume, Campus Pt in Santa Barbara, Pt Conception, and Catalina’s Blue Caverns. The US Navy has already approved two large safety area closures at the north end of San Clemente Island. They will be managed as de facto reserves.

Kellogg was frustrated by the rush to implement the closure plan. “In my lifetime I’ve never seen the economy, not only in this state but in the county, this bad. If we could prevent one fisherman from losing a job until this economy turns around… That’s my problem,” he said.

NOTE TO READERS FROM WON’s PAUL LEBOWITZ:  “When it comes to

implementation they had a map out, just like that! with all the new changes they voted to add in – at the last minute. The regs are complex but basically, red is no fishing no-how. Blue is no fishing of one sort or another. Many of those are complete

fishing bans, only allowing for outfall pipe sampling and beach and pier maintenance.

VIDEO: Also, video of the PSO attorneys' statements is up on the KayakFishingZone

YouTube account. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua8T3qlbuvg

A LONELY PROTESTER’S vigil outside the Hotel Mar Monte

meeting hall.

 THROUGHOUT THIS LONG, TORTUOUS ORDEAL, individual

anglers dug deep to make the MLPA meetings. What was one more drab day in

return for 60 seconds of speaking time? Although anglers were railroaded,

the result would have been much worse if anglers hadn’t fought to keep

access. WON PHOTOS BY PAUL LEBOWITZ

 A LINE OF BLUE-SHIRTED MPA closure fans sits in front

of the PSO’s heavy guns. The small hearing room placed opponents

uncomfortably close together.

FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER Richard B. Rogers scowls as

he sits among his suited colleagues. Meanwhile Jim Kellogg seems already to

be bowing to the inevitability of a series of 3-2 votes in favor of

implementation.

PSO ATTORNEY DAVID D. COOKE warns the commission they

are in legal peril for a host of reasons if they proceed. Rogers’ response:

“Bring it!”

Behind the Legal Battle

Ocean Access Protection Fund Collects Funds for Fight MLPA Corruption

Attorneys representing the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans have uncovered evidence they say unequivocally proves the recently approved South Coast MLPA closures were assembled behind closed doors.

It took a successful public records act lawsuit to produce those documents.  To date, only a handful of records have been released. Further legal action will likely be necessary. The Ocean Access Protection Fund coordinated funds for that first, successful court action. The OAPF is a non-profit spearheaded by United Anglers of Southern California in collaboration with the PSO. Anglers who are fed up with MLPA corruption can donate at www.oceanaccessprotectionfund.org. 

“We are the only ones raising the legal issues that could bring down the process, for that reason alone people should step up. Help make sure this corrupt process doesn’t conclude with the loss of your fishing grounds,” former Sportfishing Association of California president Bob Fletcher urged.

      Paul Lebowitz