NEWPORT - There's nothing the Ocean Policy Advisory Council can do to take the possibility of a national marine sanctuary in Oregon's waters off the table, Gov. Ted Kulongoski's chief of staff said Friday.

The only thing the council can do is to come up with the best governing plan its members can put together, Mike Carrier, told the council and an audience of about 50 people attending Friday's OPAC meeting.

The governor surprised OPAC and other coastal organizations, governments and residents when he announced in mid-December he wanted to establish a marine sanctuary under the federal national marine sanctuary program in the waters from border to border and out to the edge of the continental shelf. Kulongoski notified the Oregon delegation he would be requesting the designation prior to seeking the advice of local governments and public organizations.

That - and the concern about sport and commercial fisheries regulation within the sanctuary - captured the attention of several speakers at Friday's meeting.

Oregon Anglers and Recreational Fishing Alliance representative John Holloway called the governor's plan a Trojan horse.

Holloway noted the promise that fishing would continue in California sanctuaries was, in some cases, disregarded. The National Marine Sanctuaries Act is badly written and has no provisions for goals or objectives, he said, and during the last five years, some of the sanctuaries have, with various success, been able to manage fishing effort.

“It does not prevent a sanctuary from regulating fishing,” Holloway said.

Kathy Fosmark, a representative from the Fisherman's Association of Moss Landing in California, in her 45-minute presentation of her experiences with the Monterey Bay Sanctuary in California, iterated the same thing. Fishermen were promised involvement and no limits on fishing when the sanctuary was established in the early 1990s.

The sanctuaries clearly see themselves as able to override the state and federal regulations, she said.

“This is a fisherman's worst nightmare, compared to the picture we were painted back in 1991,” Fosmark said.

Fosmark said that on the plus side, creating the sanctuary did bring federal dollars to the area, but only in the areas of public education and water quality issues.

One of Kulongoski's reasons for establishing a sanctuary, Carrier said, was the very thing Fosmark noted.

Kulongoski hoped to “use the national marine sanctuary as a springboard to bring back federal dollars,” Carrier said.

Marine sanctuaries - areas of special protections that also are established for research purposes - have generated much controversy. Sanctuaries are not the same as marine reserves, in which there is most often no fishing, oil drilling or other use allowed. But they do afford a level of protection that draws fishing industry concerns.

Peter Huhtala, senior policy adviser for the Astoria-based Pacific Marine Conservation Council, said his group was neither for the sanctuary, nor against it, but wanted to make sure there was adequate public involvement - something sanctuaries often do not do as completely as the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

And especially for sanctuary planning, Huhtala said, “I think there needs to be public meetings.”

Oceana Pacific Project Manager Ben Enticknap said his organization is very interested in the path OPAC is taking and how it will follow the governor's directions.

“What I see is a vision for healthy oceans and ecosystem management,” Enticknap said.

In the past, Oceana has pushed for ecosystem management plans. It also has pushed campaigns to eliminate bottom trawling and, in some cases, worked with management officials to close some areas to trawling to protect unique natural resources.

But in this case, “I'm not sure a marine sanctuary is the way to go,” Enticknap said.

Coos County Commissioner John Griffith said there is a federal moratorium on establishing new sanctuaries, mostly due to the lack of federal money to fund them. But that could change.

Griffith, still clearly perturbed that Kulongoski made the announcement without consulting local governments, recommended OPAC give the governor's request “the cursory glance it deserves.”

Carrier said the governor's plan “may not have been as polished Š as some would have liked, but it's provoked (public) participation” - and that's a good thing, he said.

Even if the sanctuary idea doesn't satisfy some of the concerns of local governments, he repeated, it's time to move on.

Carrier stressed to OPAC members they should try to avoid some of the mistakes made when other sanctuaries were established.

“I think the most important role you provide for Oregon is a place where we build trust,” Carrier said.