Surfing Soapbox: Face problems instead of instituting bans

Is there no responsibility left in the world?

Or is it just in the bubble world we call Laguna Beach, where instead of teaching the next generations how to do something safely, our City Council just simply bans it? At what point is enough enough, when does the simple answer of banning go out the window or just blow out like another tiki torch?

Why not just wrap a huge bulletproof shield around Laguna Beach like they did to Stonehenge — luckily I was fortunate enough to visit and experience that exceptional place before it was glassed over. Perhaps in the same breath I should write that I too was able to experience Laguna Beach before that, too, was glassed over.

“Teach a man how to fish and he will eat forever.” Well, not in Laguna Beach since it has now become a marine reserve. What was in essence a good idea, like so many other laws, in the end it just goes too far. Sadly, you just took away from everyone the experience of recreational fishing, which I do believe should be everyone’s right under the freedom of being an American citizen.

You put people out of jobs in the worst economy in who knows how long, when you could have just stopped the big boats from fishing off our shores. Not only are you sending the wrong message and simply putting a Band-Aid on something, but also you are now beginning to run a dictatorship here in Laguna without finding better solutions and/or compromises in a world that so badly needs it.

Maybe I should remind our city about its own hand in contributing to ocean pollution with that catastrophic sewage spill a couple of years ago that closed down the Coast Highway for several days. If you don’t begin solving these problems on land first, it won’t matter; and if you simply ban all fishing, you create a defeatist attitude of “why bother, since we can’t enjoy.”

Maybe our city should have upgraded its own sewer system before making Laguna a marine reserve.

Peace.

JAMES PRIBRAM is a Laguna Beach native, professional surfer and John Kelly Environmental Award winner. His websites include AlohaSchoolofSurfing and ECOWarrior Surf.com. He can be reached at Jamo@Aloha SchoolofSurfing.com.