Editorial: Sanctuaries will help fish, people
Editorial
Sacramento Bee
08/08/2009
The California Fish and Game Commission made the right call Wednesday when it approved 153 miles of new marine sanctuaries between Half Moon Bay and Mendocino.
These new sanctuaries will serve generations of Californians by restricting fishing in certain areas that provide crucial habitat for marine life.
Over time, these near-shore sanctuaries will help rebuild delicate reefs and kelp forests that have been ravaged, or could soon be damaged, by excess harvests of abalone, rockfish and other seafood.
That recovery will help all fishermen and people who like to observe without "taking" marine life – such as scuba divers, kayakers and schoolchildren examining tide pools.
Sadly, several fishing groups opposed this latest round of sanctuaries, as did the Fish and Game Wardens Association. The latter argued that the state, even before the costcutting of the last budget, lacked sufficient wardens to police the ocean reserves.
As The Bee's Matt Weiser has detailed, the wardens have a legitimate point. There are currently far too few wardens to ticket violators and educate the fishing community.
Yet the wardens were wrong to oppose the new sanctuaries on these grounds. The process that led to these designations has taken years and has involved nearly every group that chose to engage itself in the process.
Sidetracking the sanctuaries could effectively kill years of groundbreaking work. There's no telling if the next governor will be as supportive of marine protection as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
A better option for wardens would be to work with conservation groups and other supporters of the sanctuaries to find funding for enforcement. Wealthy Californians who call themselves environmentalists should be willing to dig into their pockets to serve this important cause, possibly through a checkoff on their income taxes.
Less-wealthy citizens can also help. Despite the propaganda of some fishing groups, the new sanctuaries will still leave several thousand square miles of ocean water open to fishing off California.
