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Article: Channel Islands fishing ban expanding off Santa Barbara, Ventura
- Article from:
- Press-Telegram Long Beach, CA.
- Article date:
- August 9, 2007
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Press-Telegram Long Beach, CA. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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SANTA BARBARA - The Channel Islands fishing ban off the coast of
Santa Barbara and Ventura counties is expanding.
The federal government will announce today it is permanently
banning fishing from nearly 150 square miles around the Channel
Islands, nearly doubling the no-fishing zones in waters there.
Nearly 80 percent of the area around the islands is still open to
sport and commercial fishing, however.
The expansion comes after years of debate and study over expanding
a cluster of already protected areas in state waters, which extend
three miles from the islands, into surrounding federal waters.
In 2002, California established the first 135 square miles of
reserves off the islands. When ...