The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has some new tools to help anglers avoid fishing in designated marine reserve areas off the coast. There's a new app for both apple and android smart phones called "Fish Alerts" that displays borders for all protected areas and includes rule summaries. Stacy Galleher is ODFW's Community Outreach Coordinator.
Galleher: "It's hard to pop out a paper map and know exactly where you are, and it's just more intuitive as we keep going with technology that people are looking to their electronic devices to know where they are."
Gallaher says there are also downloadable files for most GPS devices. She says most fishermen comply with marine reserve boundaries and many end up calling the department to ask location questions. The ODFW began issuing thumb drives containing coordinates to commercial fishermen last year.
copyright, 2014 KLCC
Copyright 2014 KLCC
