Marine Reserve Meeting

black magic · 05-20-2002, 06:55 AM

There is a meeting tonight in Portland from 7 to 9 PM at the State Office Building, 800 NE Oregon, Room 140. It is the Ocean Policy Advisory Council established by Kitzhaber to study creating Marine Sanctuaries where possibly all fishing can be shut down. Maybe they might compromise and make halibut fly fishing catch, and release only! These people are never going to stop until resistance equals their efforts.Be there! [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

Pilar · 05-20-2002, 07:59 AM

Thanks for the notice, but it is very short. Anyone out there plan to attend? This could be a bad thing for shoreline boating. These reserves already exist to protect sea bird nesting areas. That program makes sense.

Closing areas just to exclude boaters is not a good idea.

Anyone?

black magic · 05-20-2002, 08:08 AM

Sorry for the short notice, but I did'nt even know of the existance of this council until the Oregonian article this morning. They may be hoping for low turnout. There are other meetings throughout the state. I do not know where or when yet.

Capt. Rich · 05-20-2002, 11:08 PM

If you want to see the problems that marine sanctuaries pose, check out any of the California websites such as calfishnet.com, coastsidefishingclub.com, bayareatunaclub.com, allcoastfishing.com.

They sound great at first glance but as Craig Hanson, who is a sports writer for The Yachtsman magazine in California, points out fish do not just stay inside a sanctuary. The real issue is the overexploitation of the resource.

California is in the throes of dealing with the issue and the explosion of the commercial live rockfish industry. Both California and Washington are trying to deal with this. Washington essentially banned them. Guess where they will go next?

It is time that ocean sport anglers in Oregon come up with a plan to deal with this issue. It is a ten hour drive from the coast to San Francisco and less than that to Seattle and Vancouver BC down I-5. A refer truck with a live well can haul a lot of rockfish to those markets.