Marine Spatial Planning, Coming to Your Area!

The first step towards an extensive series of Marine Protected Areas was taken by the Washington State Legislator in March of this year.  For now it is being called Marine Spatial Planning which according to SSB 6350 Final Bill Report reads," Marine spatial planning is a process through which compatible human uses are objectively and transparantly allocated to appropriate ocean areas to sustain critical ecological, economic, and cultural services for future generations".

While this sounds relatively harmless on the surface, when you think about what this general language could lead to, it becomes a bit scary for the recreational fisherman.  We already have many MPA's in the State of Washington that have varying purposes and degrees of restrictions and there are more being proposed all the time.  The newly revised Puget Sound Rockfish Recovery Plan will also endorse the use of Rockfish Recovery Areas that will add to this list and restrict bottomfishing even more than current rules already do.  We have seen in the last year a 120ft depth restriction for bottomfish in Marine Areas 4b-13, no retention in areas 6-13, and on top of that we have an activist commissioner wanting to restrict Neah Bay to being a dive park only, with no bottom fishing whatsoever. 

Instead of waiting and reacting down the road, we as recreational fisherman need to act now, at the beginning of this process, to make our wishes known and we need to do it in numbers that will be heard.  If we wait, we will be left with smaller areas to fish, decreased access, shorter seasons, and smaller bag limits.  Our first opportunity to weigh in is now.  The state is seeking public input through an online survey.  Please go and take a few minutes to fill this out and make sure that policy makers understand how important recreational fishing is in our marine areas. 

We can debate the good and the bad of MPA's and I do not intend to do that here.  My intention is to get all of us as recreational fisherman involved in the process becasue if we don't other people, that do not fish, will make the decisions for us.