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SANTA BARBARA — Nearly two years of attempts to reach an agreement on creating no-fishing zones around California’s northern Channel Islands almost collapsed Wednesday when fishermen and environmentalists failed to reach a compromise. 

The snag occurred during a meeting of the Marine Reserves Working Group after the most conservation-minded members of the panel grew frustrated with what fishing interests were willing to give up around Channel Islands National Park. 

“I don’t know if it is realistic or ever was that all of these people can come to a consensus,” said Deborah McArdle of the California Sea Grant Program, a government group involved in the talks. 

Group members agreed to talk to their constituents about areas of agreement reached so far and meet again within the next month. 

The working group was formed by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council in July 1999 to help create a reserve that would ban fishing in some areas of the national park. A final decision on establishing the reserve is up to the California Fish and Game Commission, Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. 

Marine reserves are relatively rare but are on the rise, with one approved recently in the Florida Keys and several others proposed in California. 

Finding consensus on where to ban fishing proved difficult Wednesday because the areas around the islands are widely used by sport and commercial fishermen. If squid fishermen don’t use a particular spot, chances are that it’s worked by lobster trappers, sea urchin divers or kelp harvesters. 

During the hearing, computer images of proposed no-fish areas projected on a screen expanded and contracted as fishing interests pleaded their cases. Fishermen said they were willing to give up more than 90,000 acres of fishing areas, the bulk of it around westernmost San Miguel Island. 

But environmentalists pressed in vain for more protection for kelp beds and waters off sandy beaches. They cited a study by a science advisory panel that concluded that 30 percent of the area around the islands needed to be off-limits to fishing to prevent depletion of marine life. 

Many fishermen dispute that figure and have been looking to keep no-fish zones at 15 to 25 percent of the total area. 

“I think certain members of the group have come a long way, and we’re being treated like dirt because we didn’t go all the way,” said Robert C. Fletcher, president of the Sport Fishing Association of California. 

Neil Guglielmo, who harvests squid in the area said, “I just gave away two miles of very productive squid habitat and now, because we are not meeting everyone’s expectations of a Garden of Eden, it was thrown out.” 

Time is running out for the group because a state panel also is planning marine reserves and will make its own recommendation for the islands this summer if the group fails to provide any.