Chumash Ask to be Excluded from Marine Protected Areas

Does that also include any "Catch & Release" programs?

I'd think that protecting the marine habitat would be a mutual goal with the Chumash.

@Ken

The problem with any 'conservation' effort, is that there are often those who are adversely affected, although they are not the ones causing the problem. Actually, it's like that with most laws!

It's rampant, COMMERCIAL overfishing that decimates ocean schools, up to the point that individual fisherman, whether for food, sport, or "cultural and ceremonial" reasons wind up losing their (let's call it a) freedom to fish. Literally, they get the short end of the stick!

This is the same, when you consider something like gasoline. Purchasers of smaller, "fuel-efficient" vehicles, will still be paying higher and higher fuel prices, as it gets used up by others who buy unnecessarily large, "guzzlers". And, don't get me wrong, I know that gas prices will *always* increase--I would just expect the rate to be much different, if we all drove small(er)-engined cars, and/or motorcycles and scooters. This might also contribute to "conserving" clean(er) air as well.

Ask the folks in Northern Michigan how giving Native American tribes unfettered access to the Great Lakes fisheries has worked out for them. When I was a kid, I could easily take my pole down to the shore early in the morning and in 20 minutes catch a breakfast pearch of decent size (thowing back the smaller ones I caught), which my mom would pan-fry for me. Nowadays, you could fish all day in Lake Huron and not catch a single pearch. They have all been quill-netted by "cultural and traditional fishing and gathering." One rule for all is fair, no special deals.