Wow, I still have an account on PP...

Norman Baker wrote in his response to fishnut:


I was one of a small group of people who pushed to implement the "C" closure. The coastal sport fishery was allocated a portion of the allowable by-catch of yelloweye rockfish and the sport halibut fishery looked likely to be shut down due to exceeding that by-catch limit. The location of the closure was based upon charter boat log book entries showing where they had encountered yelloweye while halibut fishing. The charter boat captains had the knowledge and expertise to avoid these areas, but at the time, the rapidly increasing private boat participation was unlikely to have that skill.

The "C" closure was about, and only about allocation management. Any conservation benefit was a consequence and I am not aware of any monitoring done that would indicate to what degree the closure has or has not helped rockfish.

For many years now I have wondered if I was wrong to support that closure. The goal was correct. If the closure resulted in saving the halibut fishery or if other factors were more significant will never be conclusively known. However, my biggest fear has been realized. The area is now known as a rockfish conservation zone when it should really be a rockfish management zone. Now, either due to ignorance (hopefully) or malice (hopefully not), it is being spun as something it is not.