Here is a link to the government's mandate
National Marine Protected Areas Center: MPA Federal Advisory Committee
You will see that it includes all user groups including anglers and commercial fishermen......but also environmentalists. The Pew money funds the latter groups and they are well connected as a result. Instead of fighting the idea, they have bought into it and are active using it to get what they want. Fishermen, being much stupider by far, have resisted the idea and fought against it. Bad move when the end result is mandated by law. As a result our "needs" become marginalized and things go forward without us.
In California this has lead to the closure of many prime fishing areas. Maybe it does not have to be such. Limited catch recreational fishing (as opposed to fill the boat to the brim high pressure recreational use) could probably be negotiated as these areas are set up, but this will not happen if recreational fishermen join forces with industrial interests and choose to pretend the current system can be fixed. The Gov, courts, and CLF know that is not true and have moved beyond pretense into action. Bad in the short term, but maybe better for recreational fishermen in the long term than the continued stupidity that is fishery management.
Hybrid Mode
