Marine Spatial Planning, Coming to Your Area! 6
The first step towards an extensive series of Marine Protected Areas was taken by the Washington State Legislator in March of this year. For now it is being called Marine Spatial Planning which according to SSB 6350 Final Bill Report reads," Marine spatial planning is a process through which compatible human uses are objectively and transparantly allocated to appropriate ocean areas to sustain critical ecological, economic, and cultural services for future generations".
While this sounds relatively harmless on the surface, when you think about what this general language could lead to, it becomes a bit scary for the recreational fisherman. We already have many MPA's in the State of Washington that have varying purposes and degrees of restrictions and there are more being proposed all the time. The newly revised Puget Sound Rockfish Recovery Plan will also endorse the use of Rockfish Recovery Areas that will add to this list and restrict bottomfishing even more than current rules already do. We have seen in the last year a 120ft depth restriction for bottomfish in Marine Areas 4b-13, no retention in areas 6-13, and on top of that we have an activist commissioner wanting to restrict Neah Bay to being a dive park only, with no bottom fishing whatsoever.
Instead of waiting and reacting down the road, we as recreational fisherman need to act now, at the beginning of this process, to make our wishes known and we need to do it in numbers that will be heard. If we wait, we will be left with smaller areas to fish, decreased access, shorter seasons, and smaller bag limits. Our first opportunity to weigh in is now. The state is seeking public input through an online survey. Please go and take a few minutes to fill this out and make sure that policy makers understand how important recreational fishing is in our marine areas.
We can debate the good and the bad of MPA's and I do not intend to do that here. My intention is to get all of us as recreational fisherman involved in the process becasue if we don't other people, that do not fish, will make the decisions for us.
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Thanks for posting this Rob. No matter how you slice this, it looks to me like this is a set up for another attempt to take away fishing and recreational opportunity under the guise of protecting the environment. Bear has it right, much of what is wrong with our marine environment cannot be corrected by removing opportunity, and as of now, there is no way to measure the effectiveness of any measure. To infer that if you "do nothing, nothing bad will happen" is a dog that doesn't hunt either. Seals and Sea Lions are identified as primary causes of rockfish decline, yet are not addressed in either the proposed Rockfish Plan, or Spatial planning. That's just one example. I took the survey, and I am not sure how to answer the questions so it doesn't create reasons to reduce our access. I agree with you - this is like a runaway steamroller headed toward us.
It's really a pattern of CYA (cover your ass) science. When they start "studying" your recreational fishery they are looking to close it while commercial fisheries continue unabated. Once again, we are forced to justify our rights as recreational anglers. I wonder just when it was that the sport fisherman, the passionate stewards of the resource became the enemy? Q:Why don't they take a look at BP and polluting industry? A:Money. Campaign contributions rule the roost.
Great points Bear and everyone needs to add those as concerns. I think I am finally getting through to Robbo, bring it brotha!!
If any of you think things are screwed up now just wait until "spatial planning" rolls thru town. We ain't seen nothin' yet. This is the last ditch effort from the arrogant intellectual idiots in Washington DC that got us into this mess in the first place to save what's left for "future generations". Bull##it! This one really ticks me off!
Done, thanks for the link. The one thing I see that is conspicuously missing is any mention of commercial fishing or crabbing… so I added them as major concerns. They talk about aquaculture, cruise ships, ports and marinas, oil and gas lines, shipping, military activities, etc but no mention of gill netting, by catch, derelict gear, bottom dragging, etc. Seems odd to me they would leave out one of the major human activities impacting marine resources.