True process or pure pressure?

The Fish and Game Commission approved by unanimous vote to extend comment on the CEQA document covering the fishing closures along the South Coast for 15 days.

That ends the comment period on the environmental document in time for the commission to take more public comment at their next meeting in San Diego Oct. 20-21 at the Four Points Sheraton in San Diego and then adopt the closures at their December 15-16 meeting at the Mar Monte Hotel in Santa Barbara.

Yes, the only possible outcome is adoption of the Integrated Preferred Alternative, although that is a package yet to come completely together. Many sections of the package have options that must be adopted by the commission and could have major impact on where you fish.

So you might want to attend the meetings and give your input on those options, which can be found online at www.dfg.ca.gov/mlap in the South Coast Region section.

But the adoption of the IPA, regardless of its final tweaks, is just a formality. Then again, it always was, as today's meeting abundantly displayed.

Here are the notes I posted as the meeting occurred: The public comment period for today's Fish and Game Commission just ended and it was all the same old players, the paid mouthpieces for all the various organizations. The sheer number of those representing environmental groups -- all of whom could claim they were part of the stakeholder process in one project or another -- shows how driven this process has been. Driven by money with an agenda.

Now President Jim Kellogg is speaking and just said he actually likes some of the people who started out hating him. I'll have the result in a minute or two it looks like.

It looks like the commission has come together and agreed to a 15-day extension -- which would still bring the deal to the commission table in time for the scheduled Dec. 15 approval/adoption.

Commissioner Rogers got back on his high horse, admitting he murdered huge innocent black seabass and then somehow managed to miss the fact that the species comeback has been based completely on fisheries regulation, not the closure of areas to fishing.

Dan Richards just noted it will be a unanimous decision to do the short extension. He also noted the lack of money means the closures that will be a result will last forever since no money is available for analysis, much less the 40 million dollars estimated to be needed to physically implement the closures.

The new commissioner spoke before Richards and agreed with other comments and the short extension. Oh yeah, Kellogg apologized that it was his actions that cost Mike Sutsos a spot on the commission -- although I'd swear it was the governor.

I guess what Kellogg meant was he should have looked out for his fellow commissioner instead of helping to lay a trap. Now we're stuck with a classic "Mary Nichols/Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy/Heal the Bay" enviro on the commission.

In the end, and by gosh, I am truly near the end of writing about this debacle, it was Commissioner Richard Rogers who truly epitomizes the type of person that makes the MLPA a reality.

An ardent resource user all his life who saw California's marine resources before Monsanto dumped DDT out a pipe into the water off Palos Verdes and divers of his ilk feasted on sedentary creatures like giant seabass and abalone, Rogers just wants to do something that will make it all better. Those who will lose their favorite spots to dive and fish can rightfully view his actions as a Judas purchase, especially if the outcome is beneficial.
It's hard to say there will be some kind of devastating economic impact -- hell, that already happened.

The saving grace in Southern California was the abundance of shit pipes and military facilities. San Clemente and San Nicolas islands do not even get a mention in the final proposal. Thank you Navy -- more power and political juice was the only way to win this battle.

Fishermen never had a chance and you could add up the final score by just how many paid spokesmen were there for each side today. A rough estimate was 15 to 3 enviros winning in a runaway.