ODFW has new tools to help anglers navigate marine reserves, Oct. 17

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has introduced some new tools to help ocean anglers map the boundaries of marine reserve areas as they fish off the Oregon Coast. Fishing is prohibited within Oregon’s four marine reserves and it can be difficult for anglers to know whether they’ve entered a marine reserve area, said Stacy Galleher, ODFW community engagement coordinator for marine reserves. The new tools offer anglers a variety of ways to download the marine reserve coordinates onto a number of different devices: •Download coordinates directly to common hand-held and boat GPS devices. •Create a map at home where the marine reserves can be downloaded and displayed on Google Earth. •Download a mobile app called FishAlerts. Developed by a private company, Great Outdoors Mobile, Inc., this free app displays rules summaries for all marine protected areas in the United States, including those in Oregon. Anglers can find links to all of these options at the state’s Oregon Ocean Info website (www.oregonocean.info/marinereserves) under the “News from ODFW” section. It has been the agency’s goal to provide information about the boundaries and harvest restrictions of the marine reserves sites in as many different ways as possible, Galleher said. In 2013 the agency issued thumb drives with mapping information to commercial fishers who could input the boundaries to their PC-based navigation plotters. “Clearly we needed a similar tool for sport anglers,” Galleher said. “The number one call we receive about marine reserves is from sport anglers looking for the boundary coordinates.”