Last year the department has declared the need for a series of no-fishing zones off the San Mateo County coast to protect declining fish stocks. In this process the fishermen also contributed defining the Marine Protected Areas that officials hope wil help overfished, near-shore species rebound.
Now more and more areas are coming under no-fishing zones under the purview of the Marine Life Protection Act. All state waters stretching all the way from Pescadero in San Mateo County to Point Arena in Mendocino County have come under consideration. This will create an interlocking network of MPAs within state waters along a 1,100-mile stretch of coastline.
There are variety of proposals came for state waters off San Mateo County. The Friends of Fitzgerald Marine Reserve will sponsor a public workshop on the different proposals that have been submitted by a group of specially-appointed stakeholders, including fishermen, conservationists and local park managers over the past few months.
The authority even invited public opinion on that and in this connection the stakeholder group has come up with several ideas for where to impose Marine Protected Areas in San Mateo County. Public mostly want to create three major conservation zones and to abn all commercial and recreational fishing close to shore.
Department of Fish and Game scientist John Ugoretz said that the main aim of the Marine Protected Areas was not to put fishermen out of business. He added that the ultimate goal of such restriction is to increase fish populations. It is all about preserving different ecosystems so that it could be more sustainable for fishing in the future, says Ugoretz.
