CA: A rocky point indeed for California coastal task force

LA Times ^ | 10/22/09 | Jeff Gottlieb

[NormsRevenge]

The ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula has become one of the key battlegrounds in the long-running effort to implement a state law designed to create a network of habitats off the California coast to protect depleted fish populations.

The contentious debate over the size of the marine habitat in the waters around Rocky Point is emblematic of the disputes and hard-fought battles that have been waged since the Marine Life Protection Act was adopted in 1999.

The waters off the promontory are abundant with marine life and have long been favored by sport and commercial fishing crews. But the area also is prized by conservationists for its rich kelp forests, eel grass beds and submarine canyons that serve as fish nurseries and are considered vital to the health of the ocean.

A task force today will send its proposal on how much of the Rocky Point waters should be protected as part of its regional recommendations to the California Fish and Game Commission.

The hearing by the five-member Blue Ribbon Task Force in Long Beach is the last meeting in an 18-month process. The Fish and Game Commission is expected to hand down its decision in December. In other parts of the state, the commission has accepted the task force's recommendations with few modifications.

The task force, which is deciding restrictions in the waters reaching three miles off the coast from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to the Mexican border, will choose among three proposals from its 64-member stakeholder group, made up of commercial and recreational fishing interests, marina owners, fishing clubs, spear fishers and representatives of environmental groups and state agencies, such as the Coastal Commission.

[ridesthemiles]

In California, the enviros always have more sway than all the other groups.

It will be the death knell for that state.