August 14, 2013 — SANTA CRUZ, Cal. — While often natural enemies in the wild, environmentalists and fishermen have negotiated the outline of a deal to reopen a historic trawling fishery off the Santa Cruz coast.
The deal still needs state and federal approval, but is quietly gathering support from major players around the Monterey Bay. The moment of harmony is both rare and tenuous, but could represent a thaw in the relationship between two sides often at odds on matters where marine conservation and economic livelihoods intersect.
"We basically agreed to see if it was possible, and both sides kind of went into it cautiously, to see if we could see a win-win here," said Geoff Shester, California program director for Monterey-based Oceana. "In fact, we were able to get somewhere and we've got a consensus agreement on some changes."
Under the deal, part of which is now before the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, Oceana would agree to support getting the state to end the 2006 closure of Monterey Bay to bottom trawling, a move fishing interests have said caught them by surprise.
In exchange, the two sides are supporting a Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary effort to get federal regulators to crack open a fishery plan and outlaw bottom trawling within a set of offshore parcels along the Central Coast, resulting in a net increase in protected waters.
It does not mean the two sides agree on everything. In a separate request, Oceana and two other conservation groups are asking federal regulators for stronger protections for fish along the entire West Coast — fishermen are about as likely to join that effort as they are to see mermaids flop onto their boats.
Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel