You're right DFA, We've (anglers, spearfishers and commercial fishers) been fighting this for years in CA and we are the only ones who come to the table with science and resource management plans and keep getting beat by predetermined agenda pushers of the peta kind. Central and Northern CA have been duped by area closures for several years. Down south we've been hit with various depth regs for bottom fish but last year we actually lost several productive coastal areas.
Now they will be Marine Life Protection Areas. And they are not closed temporarily, but rather indefinitely. Wish us luck getting those back. Even over 70% of the environmentally inclined believe fishing is a right/or privilege given a license is in hand.
This past fall pro-closure groups were busing in kids from the inner city and even Tijuana MX to these "for show" public meetings to have them say how much they like to see fish alive. Some of these kids have never even been to the beach. What a racket.
The stakeholders were ignored...go figure.
The irony is that the state is in econmic shambles and they are creating legislation that will annihilate a huge portion of the coastal economy, and they don't have money to enforce the new laws...what a joke! Hard to believe this has occurred under a republican Governator. Arnold should have been impeached for the disaster he has allowed to occur here.
