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53 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, May 2, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend March 25, 2004 Testing Oregon’s jurisdictional waters A Washington commercial crabber is fighting the boundary rule By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune A Washington commercial crabber is challenging just how far Oregon extends into the sea in a court case that calls into question how the state lays claim to its territorial waters. Crabber Mark Donovick, of Westport, Wash., is fighting a string of misdemeanor citations he received in January for setting his crab pots illegally inside Oregon’s jurisdictional waters near the Rogue Reef west of Gold Beach. Donovick’s claim is that he was crabbing legally in federal waters because he was more than three miles offshore, according to the Oregon State Police. But Oregon lays claim to waters three miles west of the Rogue Reef, an out-cropping of rocks about two miles offshore of Curry County, thus extending Oregon’s reach more than five miles from the beach. Advertisement Police believe Donovick is the first person in at least three decades to fight the boundary rule, which was set based on treaty descriptions and defended by a 1986 state attorney general’s opinion. Donovick is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Curry County Circuit Court in Gold Beach, triggering what could become a test case in Oregon’s claims to its part of the Pacific. "We believe the state is on solid ground, but it’s not in an area of the law that’s been litigated in the past," said Kevin Neely, spokesman for Oregon Attorney General Hardy Meyers. "For this specific issue, there probably isn’t the case law out there." Any shrinking or extending of Oregon’s so-called "territorial waters" could have huge ramifications commercially and environmentally, says Scott Boley, a salmon fishermen and former member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council which oversees ocean harvest. Oregon controls fishing inside territorial waters by requiring and limiting state permits for such things as commercial fishing. The near-shore waters also are considered the main domain for the state’s recreational fishing fleet as well as key grounds for growing and managing marine species such as bottomfish and the Dungeness caught by sport and local commercial crabbers. Boley fears any shrinking of territorial waters opens the door for large crab boats to move in and take out huge swaths of near-shore Dungeness that local crabbers in smaller boats — as well as tourists who come to catch crab — rely on. "It gives up a huge amount of water if it’s measured from just the beach line," says Boley, who also is a Gold Beach fish wholesaler. "So this issue affects almost everybody, to some extent. "On the coast, we hang our hats on tourism," Boley says. Donovick did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The case began in January when commercial crabbers complained to the Oregon State Police that Donovick’s crew was crabbing in territorial waters off Gold Beach without a permit. The U.S. Coast Guard spotted Donovick’s boat almost two miles inside Oregon water, says OSP Sgt. David Gifford of Coos Bay. When confronted, Donovick produced maps showing that he was more than three miles from the beach and maintained that he was outside of Oregon’s territorial waters, despite what normal marine maps show, Gifford says. "That’s where the debate lies," Gifford says. Oregon’s claims are based on the Submerged Lands Act of 1953 and the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone international agreement reached in 1958 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Convention, as it is known, says territorial waters start at the low-tide line on the coast and extend one league — or three miles — out to sea. But the Convention also calls for measuring three-mile circles around near-shore islands or rock outcroppings, thus extending Oregon’s waters farther offshore. Using these measurements at the Rogue Reef, Oregon’s waters extend about five miles off the Gold Beach area, Gifford says. In 1986, then Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer wrote a legal opinion defending the measurements, and Donovick’s case amounts to a challenge of that opinion. Gifford cited Donovick for three Class A misdemeanors and seized about 30,000 pounds of Dungeness, which were sold to a wholesaler for the going price — about $1.60 per pound. The money is being held until the case is adjudicated, OSP Lt. Steve Ross says. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! 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