SPORT FISHING

EDITOR: So, by the rights of numbers and money spent, sport fishing should be

allowed any time? I have been involved in sport and commercial fishing for the

last 30 years and for Greg Creamer, in his Close to Home piece on Saturday, to

say that sport fishing has little or no impact on the fragile reefs that

support the marine bio-mass is very wrong. When rock cod fishing, the weights

and lures weighing anywhere from 2 ounces to 2.5 pounds are continuously

dropped on the reefs, this has the effect of a hammer being used to pound the

coral to powder. Not to mention the thousands of weights and lures lost on top

of the rock piles.

How do I know this? I worked on sport boats. I was the one selling you all the

weights and ling cod lures. Ask any fisherman about how much gear they bring

because they know that they will lose some of those weights, lures and hooks.

It's just a fact of rock cod fishing.

As a commercial fisherman, I support the Marine Life Protection Act. This

should have been done a long time ago. I am not happy about them, but I've

seen the decline of rock fish in our waters firsthand, and if we wish to fish

in the future, something needs to be done now. Saying that sport fishing is

not as bad as commercial fishing is very shortsighted.

CHARLES R. FORD

Bodega Bay