In its review of Clinton-era environmental rules, the Bush administration is now reconsidering pending marine protections for the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, as well as a new coral reef reserve off the northwest Hawaiian Islands. The proposed protection would broadly restrict commercial and recreational fishing around the Channel Islands.
Similar restrictions are already in place in the Hawaiian Islands.
Marine protected areas, which are not unlike wilderness areas on land that protect wildlife, have traditionally been criticized by the fishing industry. Responding to protests from fishing interests, Commerce Department Secretary Donald Evans' chief of staff, Laurie Fenton, was briefed earlier this week on how the process to establish the protections was started by a Clinton executive order and how the process could be reversed by the new administration. If that were to happen, it would likely unravel 18 months of negotiations among government biologists, environmentalists, recreational and commercial fishermen to set aside between 8 percent and 50 percent of the waters around the northern Channel Islands. The intent of the protection rules is to create a safe harbor for declining populations of rockfish and other marine animals so they have a better chance to rebound. Another option presented to Commerce Department officials is to rescind Clinton's executive order in December that created Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.