news story / By Heidi Walters

United Front

In a Dec. 20 letter to a member of the Science Advisory Team’s staff, Higgins warned that if the science behind the guidelines is determined to be flawed, “you can expect the North Coast region to challenge the outcome by every means possible.”

Peter Nelson, whom the Harbor District hired to advise the working group on science matters, said Tuesday that most of the group isn’t questioning the science behind the guidelines so much as the application of the guidelines. “One of our big challenges is to make the argument that [the MLPA decision-makers] should accept a 70-miles-odd distance” from the southernmost marine reserve at Punta Gorda to Reading Rock in the north, rather than the outer accepted limit of 60 miles, he said.

On the North Coast, Nelson said, it would be hard to meet the MLPA mission to include every marine habitat possible in a reserve and to repeat that collection of habitats from one reserve to the next, within the prescribed distance, without disrupting the fishing economy of the region and potentially putting fishermen in physical danger.

Reading Rock, Nelson explained, is one of the rare deep reefs in the region. Because of that, it will certainly be recommended for a reserve, Nelson said; that was one concession that the fishermen in the group have had to make. Under the MLPA, the next likely candidates could be the rocky offshore areas south off Patrick’s Point, Trinidad Head, False Cape and Punta Gorda. Punta Gorda already has a reserve, which likely would be expanded. The working group, said Nelson, might end up seeking to keep the rocky areas off Trinidad Head, False Cape and Patrick’s Point out of reserves — concessions the environmentalists have had to make. That way fishermen, already hit hard economically by other fishing regulations and the bans on salmon fishing in recent years, would still have access to some rocky areas. And, they would still be within a day’s trip, out and back, to these areas.

Watson said the working group has agreed that there should be a 10-mile safety zone around ports so that fishermen don’t have to skirt too widely around reserves to get to their fishing areas, which could put them in danger during bad weather. The group also has agreed that the MPAs should recognize all tribal traditional uses, she said.

That last point hits on a serious oversight in the MLPA process, said Nelson. “They haven’t done a very good job of recognizing that humans are a part of the ecosystem,” he said. “To suggest that [tribes’] historical or ancestral activities shouldn’t play a role in understanding the baseline conditions is dangerous, and mistaken. To say that we should manage things according to a completely unfished baseline, with absolutely no human take or activity is … well, I have a problem with that.”

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