WASHINGTON, D.C. – Commercial fishermen on the Central Coast have endured a long string of setbacks in recent years, but an innovative experiment in cooperative fisheries management holds out a ray of hope for the future.

That’s what fishermen, environmentalists and local city officials told Rep. Lois Capps at a nearly daylong series of meetings Thursday in Morro Bay. Capps was recently appointed to the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans and is the only West Coast member of the panel.

Capps, D-Santa Barbara, said she is stunned by the changes communities such as Morro Bay and Port San Luis have gone through in recent years and is encouraged by the variety of initiatives the fishing community is undertaking to stay in business.

The most innovative is a community-based fishing agreement in which Morro Bay fisherman Ed Ewing is using a trawl fishing boat and fishing permits held by The Nature Conservancy to experiment with fishing gear that is more environmentally sustainable.

This effort is unique and could be a model for fishing communities in other parts of the country, Capps said.

“I am so impressed that, despite everything, they have an opportunity to make this collaborative ef fort work,” she said. “They have become part of a high stakes experiment.”

Fishermen said they are pleased with the amount of attention Capps is giving to their plight. Her Washington, D. C., office has two staffers dedicated to natural resource issues.

Compared to four years ago, Capps is much more informed about the problems facing fishing villages such as Morro Bay, they said.

The Nature Conservancy bought the entire Morro Bay trawl fishing fleet in 2006 when fishing for rockfish and flatfish collapsed under increasing regulations. Local landings for these fish fell to 1.2 million pounds in 2006 from 14 million pounds per year a decade ago.

The idea is to shift the local fishery away from high-volume, low-value techniques to catching fewer fish that can be sold for higher prices as sustainably and locally caught, Ewing said.

The Nature Conservancy hopes to eventually have more fishermen and boats using its fishing permits, enough to create a steady supply of fish for local markets at large enough volumes to support fish processing plants and other parts of the fishing industry infrastructure.

“The whole world is watching,” said Michael Bell, the local marine issues coordinator for The Nature Conservancy.

In the meantime, fishermen are facing a variety of other challenges. The most dire is a complete collapse this year of the West Coast salmon fishery. Local fishermen go as far as Alaska to catch salmon.

Fishermen are being told that the commercial salmon season will either be canceled or restricted to very small allowable catches, said Morro Bay fisherman Craig Barbre. Many local fishermen use the limited but lucrative salmon fishery to get by.

Fishermen are also bridling under new federal requirements that fishing boats have Global Positioning System transmitters installed that allow regulators to track the movements of fishing boats while they are at sea.

Fishermen say they resent having their every movement tracked like they are felons on parole. They also have to pay $42.95 per month for the service.

“It’s just unbelievable,” said fisherman Mark Tognazzini. “It’s an ankle bracelet that we’re forced to pay for.”

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