Morro Bay Fishing Industry Special Report: Longtime foes find a way to work together

David Sneed

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It’s a case of strange bedfellows.

Many along the Morro Bay waterfront never thought they would live to see the day when fishermen and conservationists would be working together to manage commercial fishing along the Central Coast.

But in 2006, faced with the complete collapse of trawl fishing along the Central Coast, The Nature Conservancy took the unprecedented step of buying Morro Bay’s trawl fishing fleet.

The group teamed up with San Francisco-based Environmental Defense to see if they could help rebuild Morro Bay’s tattered fishing industry using new, sustainable fishing techniques.

“We think it is very possible to build a resilient and profitable fishery, and that’s what we are working toward,” said Kate Bonzon, a fisheries specialist with Environmental Defense.

Fishermen and environmentalists are traditional adversaries. Environmentalists by nature want as much resource protection as possible, while fishermen consider themselves to be the real conservationists who have a personal stake in protecting fish stocks to ensure they can keep fishing.

So fishermen were skeptical of the new partnership, to say the least. But they had little choice.

“Morro Bay’s trawl fleet was underperforming both environmentally and economically,” said Michael Bell, manager of The Nature Conservancy’s Central Coast fisheries program.

The fleet was struggling under ever-increasing limits and closures, and the owners of the aging boats seized the opportunity to sell out, even if it was to a bunch of environmentalists.

“It was a partnership born out of necessity,” said Rick Algert, Morro Bay harbor manager.

The Nature Conservancy scrapped two of the four trawlers it purchased and kept the other two, which are docked at the North T pier along Morro Bay’s Embarcadero.

One of the trawlers, the South Bay, is leased to veteran fisherman Ed Ewing.

He is experimenting with new, lowimpact trawling gear using one of The Nature Conservancy’s permits. It’s an uneasy partnership.

“They (environmentalists) thought they knew it all; it turned out they didn’t know anything,” he said. “They’re getting a real education now.

“I don’t like what they did and they know it, but they did it and they did it legally,” he added. “I’m not sure how it’s going to work out.”

Although Ewing is skeptical of the future of the partnership, he and other fishermen are glad the conservancy is offering a way for trawl fishing to continue along the Central Coast.

“Fishermen are pretty independent and like to argue about a lot of things, but we are going to have to cooperate to get more access to the resource,” Ewing said.

For their part, Nature Conservancy officials acknowledge that fishermen bring decades of knowledge of the ocean to the table.

The new partnership has been dubbed the Central Coast Communitybased Fishing Association. It includes the two environmental groups, fishermen and Morro Bay officials, among others.

In addition to helping to rebuild a more environmentally friendly fishing industry, the association also hopes to be a powerful voice in how fishing along the West Coast is managed.

More changes are on the way for commercial fishing, and coastal communities such as Morro Bay are demanding a say.

One change is the individual fishing quota, recently adopted by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, that regulates deep-water fishing along the West Coast.

Rather than just allocating fishing permits, quotas allow fishermen to buy a secure percentage of the fishery. Federal fisheries managers have not decided who will be able to purchase the quotas—individual fishermen, communities or fish processors or a combination of all three.

Because the fishing association represents a diverse collection of stakeholders, it will be better able to influence state and federal fisheries management decisions, including fishing quotas, Bonzon said.

“We see Morro Bay as being uniquely positioned due to the dedication of the city and the partnerships of the fishing community,” she said. “Everyone is at the table.”

Reach David Sneed at 781-7930.