Thursday, November 21, 2002

Oregon may create marine reserve

By The Daily Astorian


Outgoing governor backs plan to preserve areas off state’s coast

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber has lent his support to a long-term plan for creating a system of marine reserves in the state’s ocean waters.

In a letter to the Oregon Ocean Policy Advisory Council, which has studied marine reserves since July 2000 and made a recommendation to the governor in August, Kitzhaber said, “Oregonians overwhelmingly support marine conservation and are vitally interested in protecting important marine habitats and resources along our coast.”

Marine reserves are areas of the ocean fully protected from all extractive human uses, including fishing, ocean dumping and oil drilling. Fishers fear that the reserves will further restrict fishing at a time when the industry is hurting.

“I’d say that if it was well thought out, it wouldn’t be a total loser,” said Gerald Gunnari, president of the Coos Bay Trawlers Association. “I just mainly hope that there’s enough input from the industry to be able to get a favorable outcome for everybody.”

Kitzhaber was conscious of fishers’ concerns in his letter last week.

“I ask the OPAC to work with stakeholders to design a system that may include some fully protected reserves to test the concept but be clear that not every reserve would limit fishing,” Kitzhaber said.

There is still much work to be done before even limited reserves could be established on the Oregon Coast. The OPAC, which was established by the state Legislature in 1991, presented the governor with a two-phase process for implementing marine reserves.

The first phase involves gathering “broad public support and strong technical and scientific rationale” to back a coastwide plan for marine reserves. In the second phase, initial sites for marine reserves would be selected.

“However, actual implementation of reserves should occur after assessments of economic or social impacts,” Kitzhaber said.

Renee Davis-Born, policy coordinator for the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans at Oregon State University, said she expects to see some marine reserves within two years.

“We would at least see a few initial reserves in the water to test the objectives that were outlined in the (governor’s) recommendation,” she said.

The governor directed the heads of many stage agencies to assist OPAC in the process of reserve planning.

Davis-Born said it’s difficult to predict whether the state’s budget woes will impact planning for marine reserves. However, given that Oregon is one of the first states to look closely at marine reserves, she said financial help could be available from federal sources, to “take some of the burden potentially off of the state agencies.”