FISHING-BAN DEBATE LOUDER BY THE WEEK SIDES DIG IN REGARDING PROPOSED CLOSURES.

Byline: Keith Lair Staff Writer

LONG BEACH - A screaming match last weekend between an Orange County congressman and a patron at the 52nd annual Fred Hall Fishing Tackle and Boat Show demonstrated how volatile the proposed fishing ban within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary can be.

It has roiled the commercial and sport-fishing, conservation and environmental communities for three years. And it remains a rallying point at Fish and Game Commission meetings. And at the Hall show.

On Saturday, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and a show patron matched wits regarding the proposed closures, with Rohrabacher questioning the man's scientific knowledge about the ocean and Rohrabacher being called a ``right-wing wacko.''

Rohrabacher was at the show to introduce a nonpartisan bill, HR 3547, which is authored by Minnesota Democrat Colin Peterson. It is designed to ``protect the public's ability to fish for sport, and for other purposes.''

It wasn't the first salvo fired at the show, either. Earlier in the week, the American Sportfishing Association, a co-sponsor of the show, announced its economists had found that closures of fishing areas off the Channel Islands, located off the Ventura and Santa Barbara county coasts, would cost the California economy $100 million - 90 percent more than estimates made by the CINMS Marine Reserve Working Group's Socioeconomic Panel.

``Closing the Channel Islands is eliminating people's freedom to fish,'' Rohrabacher said. ``The ocean belongs to us, not the government. We don't need a whole bunch of bureaucrats telling us how to live our lives.''

Rohrabacher said he is not an angler, but he does surf as often as he can and thus considers himself a user of natural resources. He said the bill will rescind former President Clinton's executive order to create a network of ocean-conservation areas. It would not allow areas to close unless scientific data backs the closure.

``We need to take this to (President) George W. (Bush) and say, 'This is ridiculous,' '' Rohrabacher said. ``We're taking this to the extreme and that's crazy. This is an attack on your freedom.''

Sportfishing Association of California president Bob Fletcher said the bill will pressure California into changing its proposed Marine Life Protection Act, which is scheduled to be adopted next year. The MLPA will close several areas off California's coast to fishing.

``It's going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the MLPA process to gather the kind of scientific and economic analysis to be able to prove there is a problem and justify a closure is needed,'' Fletcher said. ``We need that kind of pressure.''

ASA president Mike Nussman and several fishing-industry company presidents admit closures would have an economic affect on their businesses.

``It's easy for people to think of this as the cure-all,'' Irvine-based AFTCO president Bill Shedd said, ``but it's unpractical and unreasonable. Fish swim. They won't necessarily be in the closure areas. A reserve will not solve the problems.''

Nussman said the CINMS panel did not include equipment expenditures - including the purchase of boats, tackle and accessories - in its report. It also claims the data was at least 10 years old.

``Economically, it does not make sense,'' Nussman said. ``To make up for it, they will need to increase other areas (of recreation) by 350 percent. There's only so much whale watching, kayaking and scuba diving.''