ASTORIA, Ore. — After 15 years of development, Cape Falcon Marine Reserve comes to life in January.
Oregon’s fifth marine reserve goes into effect at Cape Falcon in January. The reserve limits fishing and adds protections to the area, and will serve as a resource for research and a lure for tourism.
“People who are interested in farmers markets travel to farmers markets,” said volunteer chairwoman Nadia Gardner of the Friends of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve. “People who are interested in marine conservation, they travel to places with protected marine areas. It’s sort of a burgeoning market. We’ll see if we will get charter boats or ecotourism. I’d love that.”
Gardner shared the significance of the newly designated federal status at a May 19 work session of the Cannon Beach City Council. According to Gardner, there are four other marine reserves in effect in Oregon — the only state to have them: Cascade Head in Lincoln City, Otter Rock in Newport, Cape Perpetua in Yachats and Redfish Rocks in Port Orford.
“Each reserve is different, and they all come out of a different process,” she said. “Each had a large stakeholder involvement, the conservationists proposed something, the fishermen proposed something, the state proposed something.”
According to Gardner, marine reserves are natural area parks in the ocean, established to protect wildlife and natural resources, and to provide baseline scientific monitoring to study as a living laboratory. “Marine reserves are about diversity of species, not just fish, sea lions and seals, our bird species, our invertebrates. There are a wide variety of species that will benefit from the marine reserves.”
The reserve is 12.6 square miles and runs a length of 6 miles, from Falcon Cove to the north end of Manzanita Beach. Most of the reserve’s shoreline is part of Oswald West State Park, which consists of 2,500 acres and is listed as the second-most visited state park on the coast.
According to Gardner, the reserve prohibits the removal of any living marine resource, including fish, mussel or kelp. It is also protected from any ocean development. The western marine protected area will allow only salmon line fishing and crabbing. The Falcon Cove marine protected area allows only recreational line fishing. The area will be open to scuba diving, wildlife viewing, surfing and tidepooling.
