Endangered: Ocean sportfisher

On Sept. 4 I and 12 supporters attended a meeting of the Del Norte County Fish and Game Advisory Committee. At this meeting I brought forth a few facts that so-called experts seem to grossly overlook.

The primary fact is that the biggest endangered species in this area is the California ocean sports fishing people and the businesses that they support. People, just look around you, see the empty campgrounds, the empty harbor, the empty motels, and the loss of clientele in the restaurants. Do you honestly believe that the gas prices are to blame for this? Believe me the gas prices are the least of your worries!

When you let irresponsible people with no common sense and with a total disregard for the social and economic impact on the Northern California coastal communities do away with the ocean sport fishing you let economic disaster in! This is the same as it happened for the timber industry.

I, for one, am entirely fed up with the pompous handling of fish and game regulations and having my fishing/hunting license fees go to support these idiots that have the inability to apply common sense and correct statistical information on the ocean ground fish issue. The so-called experts that support these decisions are so far off base they make me sick.

Does it really make sense to you to give the Indians 33,500 salmon that they sell for $5 per pound to anyone while we subsidize our commercial fishermen because they are not allowed to catch salmon and the ocean sport fisherman gets not a chance in a blue moon of being allowed to fish for salmon!

I'm sorry but to my mind this is a stupid decision made by idiots! It certainly does not get the salmon up the river! Let the Indians have a quota but let them fish for the salmon the same as our commercial fishermen and our sports fishermen! I thought this was America and we were all the same — not penalizing one group for the benefit of another!

Now we come to the closure of the ocean bottom fishing nearly four months early! Again by sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing people have let yet another economic crisis occur, which I am attempting to get reversed. The ocean ground fishing for the sport fisherman was stopped Sept. 2. There was less than 24 hours' notice of a meeting in Trinidad and, in fact, most of the RV parks did not receive notice of this meeting until two days after the meeting was held.

I wrote a petition to reinstate Northern California ocean sport ground fishing which stated the following:

"We the undersigned petition the California Department of Fish and Game and Governor Schwarzenegger to reinstate the recreational ocean fishing for rockfish, lingcod, cabezon and greenlings in Northern California.

"Fish and Game's estimate of the yelloweye rockfish taken incidentally in Northern California is irresponsible and completely in error. In fact, its own published memo states that the federal guideline harvest of these fish is 2.1 metric tons and Fish and Game's estimate (which is grossly overstated) is that as of Aug. 10, 1.3 metric tons have been incidentally taken, which would leave at least 0.8 metric tons before the federal guideline would be met.

"The total disregard for the social and economic impact on the Northern California coastal communities that is caused by Fish and Game's lack of common sense and incorrect statistical information is simply not to be tolerated. Enough is enough! How would Fish and Game personnel like to have their wages suspended and see just what social and economic impact that would cause each of them?

"It is the sport fisherman's license fees and our tax dollars that support these irresponsible people at Fish and Game who cause nothing but havoc with the welfare of our Northern California coastal communities and their residents that depend on the sports fishermen's business."

We obtained 423 signatures on this petition. The original petition was sent to the executive director of the California Fish and Game Commission and a copy was sent to Gov. Schwarzenegger asking for his help on this situation.

The other facts I brought forth were these:

• In the Crescent City Harbor there are only a total of 255 boat slips if the harbor was completely filled.

• Of these 255 boat slips, there are 74 boats in slips and they have never been out of their slip to fish (or anything else). Most of the actual boats that get out to fish have two persons on board, not four! This is not the 400 boats with four people fishing on each boat that the so-called experts state.

• There is absolutely no possible way that anyone can fish out of this harbor every day! In fact, if the fishermen get out three times in a week it is considered a wonderful week. Many times the fishermen cannot get out and fish for up to two weeks at a stretch due to bad ocean conditions. This year small craft warnings were in effect more days than not.

• The total disregard for the social and economic impact on the Northern California coastal communities that is caused by California Fish and Game's lack of common sense and incorrect statistical information is simply not to be tolerated! Your so-called experts are so far off base that it makes a person sick.

Where once there were hundreds of boats and sport fishermen there are now only a few and these few will disappear if you, the people and businessmen of Crescent City, do not demand from your local and state government that this idiotic situation be changed and be changed now!