Anglers Marginalized by Vote

Editor,

I grew up in a Laguna that embraced both sportfishing and marine conservation. Thurston Junior High sponsored a fishing club and we caught perch and opaleye from the rocks. In 1970, I attended the dedication of the Aliso fishing pier, which became my favorite hangout. I rode the city bus to get there. Aliso was the third fishing pier in Laguna, following the Bird Rock pier around 1900, and the Treasure Island Pier in the 1960s. Brazil's Bait and Tackle shop, near Cleo Street, kept anglers supplied until about 1968.

Sportfishing was valued as wholesome, low-cost recreation, especially for the elderly and the young. Like my peers I fished, body surfed, and snorkeled 200 days a year for a decade. The ocean was the beating heart of Laguna, and after such intimacy, I fell deeply in love with that heart.

Also in the 1970s, Laguna wisely created the Heisler Park Ecological Reserve, arguably the first in the country. Before the reserve, busloads of Orange County schoolchildren arrived on field trips, with each child taking home a bucket of starfish and crabs. The reserve stopped the carnage, and raised awareness even in unprotected areas.

Thus sportfishing and conservation coexisted in Laguna. Now, in a step backwards, the City Council voted 4:1 to ban sportfishing citywide, from El Morro to Three Arch Bay. The message to anglers is clear: you are officially marginalized, go to the separate-but-equal fishing areas outside the city. Separate is never equal, and such intolerance cuts at the very soul of Laguna.

The council resolution erroneously claims "with the removal of the mature lobster and California sheepshead, which are predators of sea urchins, the kelp forests which would naturally grow on Laguna's … reefs are unable to thrive since the over-population of urchins feed on kelp." Nonsense. The science is very clear about the main reasons for kelp decline, that is: 1) the regional extinction of the sea otter in the 19th century, and 2) ocean sewage outfalls, of which Laguna has two. The kelp beds have never fully recovered from the loss of the sea otter, which was the primary urchin predator.

The resolution also cites "dramatic decline of marine fisheries." Science supports no such conclusion for Laguna's popular sport fish such as opaleye, perch, corbina and calico bass. No such decline has in fact occurred in Laguna. "Dramatic decline" is a throwaway line, uncritically accepted by the council.

Shame on you, city council, for embracing intolerance, and reducing the ocean to a mere ornament. Charles G. Loos Portland, Ore.