California Bans Recreational Fishing in Channel Islands

October 24, 2002

(Alexandria, VA) In what many anglers fear may be the first in a series of
sweeping nationwide closures, yesterday California Governor Gray Davis
dismissed the concerns of anglers and scientists by slamming the door on
some of the most popular recreational fishing areas in Southern California.

"We all have an interest in seeing healthy fish, especially anglers," said
Mike Nussman, President and CEO of the American Sportfishing Association.
"The sportfishing community has long supported focused closures as part of a
larger management strategy, but this single-minded philosophy of banning
public access absent any scientific or economic merit is misguided."

Under a decision announced late yesterday at a meeting of the California
Fish and Game Commission in Santa Barbara, 175 square miles of coastal
waters surrounding the Channel Islands, equaling about 30 percent of
Southern California's best fishing areas, will be placed permanently
off-limits (including catch and release fishing).

Not only will thousands of people in the region no longer be able to pursue
America's most popular outdoor leisure time sport, but local charter boats,
hotels, restaurants and other businesses that rely on angler dollars will
suffer. Annual losses in retail sales due to the closures may reach $50
million according to a recent analysis by Southwick Associates, a leading
natural resource economic consulting firm. California is second only to
Florida in the number of anglers and the amount of money spent on fishing.
More than 2.4 million people in California spend $2.38 billion on
recreational fishing each year. In excess of 43,000 jobs and $60 million in
state tax revenue is tied to recreational fishing according to an American
Sportfishing Association analysis of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data.

Anglers are concerned that California may be only the first domino to fall,
triggering a broader movement towards unnecessary bans of recreational
fishing. Further closures are likely in California and similar efforts are
underway in other coastal states including Oregon, Massachusetts and
Florida. These efforts, aggressively pushed by several environmental
activist organizations, have moved forward despite concerns raised by
anglers, conservation groups, respected outdoor journalists, and scientists.

Determined not to allow the California decision to set precedent, anglers
and conservation organizations have united to launch the Freedom to Fish
campaign. It is a reflection of their shared interest in advancing marine
management programs based on sound science and ensuring angler access when
recreational fishing is not jeopardizing fish populations. Led nationally
by the American Sportfishing Association, the group of supporters includes
B.A.S.S./ESPN, Coastal Conservation Association, International Game Fish
Association, Jersey Coast Anglers Association, National Marine Manufacturers
Association, Recreational Fishing Alliance, Sportfishing Association of
California, and United Anglers of Southern California. With a combined
membership of over a million, these groups worked with the ASA to craft the
Freedom To Fish Act, now pending in Congress, and helped mobilize more than
5,000 angler letters petitioning Congress for its passage.

"With Atlantic striped bass, redfish, white seabass, and many other
sportfish, anglers have demonstrated their willingness to sacrifice fishing
access or technique when it was necessary to recover fish populations,"
Nussman said. "What we're seeing now is the theoretical fervor for marine
protected areas getting far ahead of the scientific evidence to support such
measures."

Numerous independent authorities on fisheries management have expressed
unease over the lack of any empirical evidence in support of marine
protected areas and disputed the environmentalists' claim that anglers would
benefit from massive closures (see attachement).

In findings presented earlier this year to the California Fish and Game
Commission, Dr. Robert Shipp, an authority on fisheries management and
Marine Sciences Chair at the University of South Alabama, noted that better
implementation of existing regulations would be a more common-sense method
for recovering depressed fish populations.

Characterizing yesterday's decision on the Channel Islands, Tom Raftican,
president of the popular angler organization, United Anglers of Southern
California said, "the Commission went blasting ahead with a ready, fire, aim
approach... California anglers have just been knocked flat by the train
leaving the station. Other states need to take notice because they're
next."

To join the Freedom To Fish campaign to protect fish and citizens
opportunity to go fishing, please visit www.FreedomToFish.org.
The American Sportfishing Association is the recreational fishing trade
association, with more than 500 members representing the fishing and boating
industry, state and federal natural resource agencies, angler advocacy
groups, and outdoor journalists. The American Sportfishing Association
initiates and supports efforts to advance healthy fisheries, fishing
opportunities, and a profitable sportfishing industry.

Supporters of the Freedom To Fish Act include the American Sportfishing
Association, B.A.S.S., Coastal Conservation Association, International Game
Fish Association, Jersey Coast Anglers Association, National Marine
Manufacturers Association, Recreational Fishing Alliance, Sportfishing
Association of California and United Anglers of Southern California.

For more information, visit www.FreedomToFish.org
<http://www.freedomtofish.org/> .

Please also take a look at the attached newsletter "MPA News" published by
the University of Washington. Their report on measuring the effects of
marine protected areas supports our contention that the science of MPAs has
not caught up to the rhetoric.

www.FreedomToFish.org

Contact: Forbes Darby or Janet Tennyson for more information.
(703) 519-9691

---

forwarded from Steve Meyer

Compare what is set forth in the CA Constitution to what is reported in the
article above.

Water, forests, minerals, fish, etc., etc. - ALL resources are being stolen,
bit by bit, from the American people, at an alarming rate.

Public/Private Partnerships (Government/Business Partnerships) are creating
monopolies and denying acces of individual citizens to their sustenance.

Control of resources = Control of People.

CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA, Article 1, Sec. 25

[Right to fish]

Section 25. The people shall have the fight to fish upon the public lands of
the State and in the waters thereof, excepting upon lands set aside for fish
hatcheries, and no land owned by the State shall ever be sold or transferred
without reserving in the people the absolute right to fish thereupon; and no
law shall ever be passed making it a crime for the people to enter upon the
public lands within this State for the purpose of fishing in any water
containing fish that have been planted therein by the State; provided, that
the Legislature may by statute, provide for the season when and the
conditions under which the different species of fish may be taken. [New
section adopted November 8, 1910.]

Please also take a look at the attached newsletter "MPA News" published by
the University of Washington. Their report on measuring the effects of
marine protected areas supports our contention that the science of MPAs has
not caught up to the rhetoric.