DFG Meeting - A Newbie's Observations

[Hunters Pa]

Originally Posted by JoeBeck

Bob,

Good write up and accurate. I think we were well represented by kayak and boat fishermen and I was happy to cede my time to clay.

Hunters Pa. It sounded like to me that they were trying to get the MPA reworded in the beginning of the meeting to allow sand replenishment. I actually had a good conversation about this with a lady representing Heel the Bay. She seemed opened to my thoughts because I told her this whole process angers me because they are targeting Recreational fishemen who have a small impact on the ocean environment and are people who care for it. That they are not targeting urban runoff, the damages of ocean front development that have created the need to replenish sand, dumping waist into our seas including cruise boats and poorly maintained city sewage lines..... on and on I went about other factors that effect the ocean and the fishing. I also let her know that this process has had a negative effect because it is dividing stewards of the environment into two groups having the fishermen dropping support for their organizations.

Yeah, Joe, they want to keep certain man-made impacts that alter the environment and ban others. All that sand was not there until development in the early part of the 20th century. The beaches were narrow & rocky - down past the surfline too. That rocky bottom provides better anchoring for kelp which would be better habitat for marine life. BUT Laguna wants their nice wide sandy beaches, so they approve of periodically trucking in more sand to replace what the ocean takes away. They call it "nourishment". I call it destruction of the natural environment.

Oh, and I am willing to bet that a lot of those Laguna closure activists have those houses with leaky septic systems that are directly polluting the water