Anglers cheer, environmentalists jeer — and rare lobster appears — as fishing ban in Laguna Beach fails

The only section of Laguna Beach’s coastline not designated a California Marine Protected Area will remain open to fishing.

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The California Fish and Wildlife Commission recently denied a petition from the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition to extend the MPA designation to the remaining 1.32-mile stretch of coastline down to the city’s southern border with Dana Point. It is the only part of the city’s coast not currently protected from fishing or the removal of any sea life or habitat, including rocks.

Laguna Bluebelt representatives, supported by Orange County Coastkeeper, Acjachemen tribal leaders, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environment California, among other environmental groups, argued the area is being overfished and the kelp beds impacted and the stretch should be protected.

But local commercial sportfishing charters, lobster fishers, and recreational fishers argued the loss of access would unduly reduce the areas they can fish locally off Orange County and negatively affect their livelihoods and the legacy of living from the sea.

Commissioners unanimously voted 3-0 on Friday, Oct. 16, to keep the status quo. The commission has five members but two were absent from the vote.

Commissioners Erika Zavaleta, Samantha Murray, and Darius Anderson commended all those involved for sharing a love of the ocean environment and wanting to protect it, but ultimately agreed with other agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Ocean Protection Council, which previously recommended denial.

“I feel if we are going to limit opportunities for fishing in coastal cities, I feel like that’s something that needs to be warranted by a specific serious need,” Zavaleta said. “An imperiled species in that area or something along those lines.”

The proposed extension would have serious ramifications on the lobster fishery out of Dana Point, Zavaleta said, and “there has to be a real, clear, serious need for an action to warrant that.”

In California, there are 124 designated MPAs; 50 are off Southern California. The MPA program was created in 2012 to help restore heavily fished and impacted sections of the California coastline. A recent review of the first 10 years of the program indicated a rebound of sea life in the protected areas.

The petition effort, which collected more than 6,000 signatures, was first reviewed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which recommended denial. In April, Laguna Beach’s Environmental Sustainability Committee voted to support the wildlife department’s recommendation to deny the boundary expansion, but remained open to future local kelp restoration projects. In June, the Ocean Protection Council held a hearing on the topic in San Clemente and also recommended denying the MPA expansion.

“Naturally we’re disappointed,” said Jinger Wallace, a Bluebelt board member, who, for the commission hearing, prepared a report offering evidence of a nearly complete loss of kelp off Thousand Steps Beach that hasn’t changed in a decade.

“We believe increased fishing pressure has contributed to a reduction in the number of large predators that would otherwise protect kelp growth at Thousand Steps,” she said. “Those activities will now continue.”

“The ocean needs protection now more than ever to address challenges ranging from rising sea temperatures to pollution from inland cities,” she added.

The commission’s decision relieved the fishing community, which also had its own host of support, including from the cities of Dana Point and Laguna Beach, fellow sportfishing operators, and recreational anglers who spoke in favor of keeping what they argue is the only local area available to them open to fishing.

“This is an important decision for our local fishing community, recreational anglers, commercial lobster fishermen, sportfishing business, and everyone whose livelihood depends on access to our coastal waters,” said Donna Kalez, who operates Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching.

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Kalez said that for more than a decade, her charter company has respected and operated alongside established Marine Protected Areas and that she, like Laguna Bluebelt, supports protecting the ocean and marine resources.

She called the last three years since Laguna Bluebelt launched its petition effort “horrendously stressful.”

“It’s a huge relief,” Kalez said. “Everybody is so relieved that that is not going to go through. For the lobster people who fish in that area, it’s their entire livelihood, and some of them work for us in the off-season as captains; I see how hard they work and how much they put into it.”

Rodger Healy, a Laguna Beach native, has fished lobster commercially since 1988 and participated in the process when the MPAs were initially mapped out.

“That’s not the agreement when we spent many thousands of hours in meetings and money on,” he said of using the study of the MPAs’ effectiveness. “The decadal review wasn’t set up to start expanding more; it was meant just to clean up stuff, and I think that’s the way the department looked at it.

“It ended the way it should have, and people saw there wasn’t necessity but more of  desire to close it.”

Healy, who said he is relieved to have a decision in hand, has been working his boat since Oct. 2, fishing the tasty crustaceans that he said are plentiful, especially off South Laguna.

“It’s been excellent,” he said, adding that the fleet typically takes in close to half of its entire season, which goes to March, in the first month of fishing. “The massive swells all summer long, in combination with warm water, have dispersed the lobsters out from the shallows out deeper and everywhere else. Plus warm water makes their metabolism higher, and they’re hungrier.”

Among his catches just last week was a rare find. A pinto lobster, also known as the Sea of Cortez lobster.

“It’s a tropical-looking lobster, an El Niño warm-water traveler,” he said, noting that his capture off South Laguna’s Thousand Steps Beach last week is only the second one reported caught off the state’s coastline. The first one was caught in 1997 off Dana Point.  “You expect it with fish because they’re highly pelagic and swim; you don’t expect it with crustaceans.”

Healy said he has contacted the Doheny State Beach docents, where he hopes the colorful, rare bug can be displayed in their aquarium.

“The misnomer is we’re a bunch of Neanderthals that want to kill everything in the ocean,” he said. “The reality is that, as far as stewards, it’s my responsibility as one of the elder guys to ensure all the younger guys abide by the rules, keep within the parameters of the law so we have a well-managed fishery that’s sustainable and lasts forever and that everyone in the state can love it as people who are observers and as people who are consumptive.”

“There’s no one who loves the ocean more than me,” Healy added. “I’m on it every day, and I appreciate it and do everything in my power to harvest ethically and responsibly.”

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