Rob
You voiced your opinion and the way many, many, many of us feel very strongly. We all understand your frustration with the process and what can or may be caused by it. You definitely didn't choose the most "politically correct" way of voicing it I think everyone who fishes certainly understands why you said what you said and in one way or another definitely appreciates what you said.
Tyler, truly an awesome presentation by all accounts from what I have heard!!!!
While I certainly have no desire to lay down and accept what fate may come I chose a more shall we say toned down version, I spent most of the afternoon speaking to some coastkeeper higher ups and the 3 surfrider reps, taking the time to explain why the avenida de la playa launch is so important to keep open and not include a larger reserve in that general area of La Jolla then there already is. While ultimately I would much prefer to have all of La Jolla open and I stressed this heavily in our discussion if we have to lose some of it I encouraged that they take the south end more than the northern end (south endbeing the windansea to crystal pier area) trust me I don't want to see any of it closed at all but if we have to lose something I explained that, that would be the ideal compromise. We would still have the NW corner and such in this plan, along with the half, the 90/80ft curve and the "bump", which tends to be the area that is most productive for all of us and within the relative "easier" paddling distances from shore. I stressed also quite heavily that extending the current reserve out to the additional 3 mile mark would effectively destroy kayak fishing for all but the 1%er's who are able to make that safely and deal with the onslaught of possible conditions that would put a great many kayakers in harm's way.
I stressed heavily the importance of the safety issues surrounding the avenida de la playa launch versus the "other" safe launches and explained that Marine St. and Tourmaline are not actually "safe" alternatives due to large swell and shorebreak at Marine st. and due to the high, high amount of people that surf at Tourmaline and have absolutely no clue what they are doing and stressed that landing a kayak at either would only lead to more than a few people getting hurt everyday that someone launches there. (Hold on HEMAN I didn't say it was impossible to launch at either location just that it was more preferrable to have a much safer launch at LJ). The head of the S.D. Coastkeepers seemed to be pretty cool with the idea of keeping a safe launch open as did the folks at surfrider due in a large part to the safety issue of launching and landing at the other locations.
I also sincerely suggested the Tijuana Sloughs area as a great place to establish an MPA as there is zero kayak launches in that area that I know of. If there are and you fish that area please, please tell us or me ASAP, but that area is somewhat similar to the area of LJ that they find oh so desireable! There is a deep water canyon, a huge history of sealife, a very messy area that definitely needs some cleanwater love and a whole lotta clean up and it is a fairly feasible area to restore. Both surfrider and coastkeeper seemed very interested in the area as an alternative to La Jolla, this process is hardly over and I do not find myself "trusting" of either group wholeheartedly, but it is an option we need to to explore in order to protect LJ! It is hardly the end of the battle but at least there is the possiblilty of being open to new ideas from the enviro's! It isn't a guarantee but it is a start of more openess than I have ever experienced from the "enviro" side. I have email addresses from everyone I chatted quite extensively with yesterday and plan to follow up with them and hopefully win their hearts and minds!
Thank you to everyone for showing up yesterday and working your asses off and doing whatever you can to save our most precious fishing grounds!!
And before anyone comes on here and calls me a sell out or something else keep in mind we are all working towards keeping La Jolla open and all of us are doing whatever we can to work within the somewhat skewed system that we are being forced to work within, I am not a fool who is trusting anyone but instead at least seeing what are the possibilities of coming to a mutual agreement that may indeed work for everyone! If you have any questions about my conversations or have any comments you would like to make to me feel free to
PM me and let me know your thoughts....let's keep the mean or hateful remarks off the boards as it will only add possible fuel to those who are against us' fire, like I said PM ME!!!
Also any kayakers in the Santa Monica and Pt. Dume areas can you please email me your launch sites? We need to know exact launch locations so that you can protect your access to those launches as best we can!!!