Captain Fred Huber of the Daily Double didn't have to search long for an answer when asked why he wants to be a member of a stakeholder group that will decide the fate of some traditional ocean fishing areas off Southern California.
ED ZIERALSKI / Union-Tribune
Captain Fred Huber, shown with his son Philip, 10, hopes to be named to the South Coast regional stakeholder group.
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Huber reached into his wallet and lifted a picture of his three sons – Philip, 10; Steven, 6; and Jeffrey, 3. The boys, in addition to his wife, Michelle, mean the world to him. Revenue from his sportfishing business sustains the family.
“I'm pot-committed; all my chips are on the Daily Double,” Huber said Thursday night at the final meeting in the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative series for the South Coast Study Region.
There were six meetings in all, two in San Diego County, and San Diego had the largest attendance with 161 in Old Town after the Carlsbad meeting drew 120 the previous night.
It was important for all who fish and play in ocean waters to attend, but it was very important for people such as Huber from the sportfishing community, and Tommy Gomes, who represents both the commercial and sportfishing sides, and others who want to be members of the South Coast regional stakeholder group. Members will be chosen by Donald Koch, new director of the California Department of Fish and Game, and the chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force. Meetings will start in the fall. Completion and approval of the reserve network is expected by 2010.
A group of select scientists will form the Science Advisory Team. That team and the stakeholders will hammer out a network of marine protected areas off Southern California. Some of those areas are expected to be closed to all fishing. That concerns commercial and sport fishermen here.
“I started on the Daily Double as a deckhand in 1976,” Huber said. “They can't come up with a biologist who has had more time in the field than I have in the last 32 years. I feel I can help this governmental process that will tell us what we can and can't do, where we can and can't go.”
Huber said the process that promises to close off fishing areas couldn't come at a worse time for Californians.
“In the four years I've owned the boat, I've seen the minimum wage go from $6.25 to $8 an hour,” Huber said. “Diesel fuel has gone from $1.57 to $4.57. And the California one-day fishing license has gone from $8 a day to $12 a day. Now they're going to take away part of our fishing area. This is just one more knock on the guys trying to make a living. We couldn't be more down and weakened or vulnerable.”
Gomes, who also seeks appointment to the stakeholders group, has been a commercial fisherman and a sport fisherman. He is part of Dave Rudie's team at Catalina Offshore Products in San Diego. Rudie is a sea urchin diver and processor and an expert on marine life in the kelp. Gomes used good old American ingenuity to arrive at a process that converts the byproduct from the valued uni in urchin into a couple of successful and proven bait products, Uni-Goop and Uni-Butter.
“I've worked hand in hand with governments all over the world on all aspects of fishing,” Gomes said. “I've been a commercial fisherman most of my life. My father was a commercial fisherman. I just want to fight the good fight, but I also can play well with others in the sandbox. I know how hard it is to get commercial fishermen to sit down and listen. But I think other commercial fishermen will value my input.”
Huber said it best: “If I didn't throw my two cents in I'd hate myself for not doing it.”
Nominations for the South Coast Regional Stakeholder Group close at 5 p.m. on Friday. You may e-mail the nomination (you may nominate yourself) to MLPAComments@resources.ca.gov; fax to (916) 653-8102 (Attention: Melissa Miller-Henson); or mail to: Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, c/o California Resources Agency, 1416 Ninth St., Suite 1311, Sacramento, CA 95814 (Attention: Melissa Miller-Henson).
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
