(Webmaster note: The opinions voiced on this page are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of the DSBDC.)
September 27th, 2009
Tired of not fishing? Download this link to YouTube Videos about California’s water usage crises.
Salmon_Water_Video_Links.PDF
Since the MLPA affects both Fishing and Diving, I’ve put those links on both pages... Webmaster.
Click here for California DFG’s MLPA Pages
Maps of the North Central MPAs
This forwarded by Ben T. from the USAFishing.com e-newsletter and reprinted with permission:
February 18th, 2010
Excerpted from the “Hurley Chronicles”
“The following is a release that came to my email address today from the Sierra Club, so it is good to have the power of one of the oldest conservation organizations on board in response to the recent events on the Delta.”
Support California Fisheries and Fishing Families!
The magnificent San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River Delta is the largest estuary on the West Coast of North America and the source of the California salmon fishery which provides thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of income to the economy. Tragically, one of the nation's most important ecosystems is collapsing and the salmon populations are endangered.
Unfortunately, greedy water users are pressuring Senator Feinstein to introduce legislation to waive Endangered Species Act protections to these endangered fisheries which could have disastrous consequences for California's iconic salmon fishery.
Please ask your U.S. Senators not to waive the Endangered Species Act protections for California's fisheries and the family fishing jobs that depend on them.
Another way that you can help is to donate toward our cause.
This is the email link that a petition can be accessed. https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=3678&autologin=true
In the Round and About Section, there is a sample letter to our United States Senators from the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition and an editorial from Dan Bacher on the political influence of Westlands billionaire farmer, Stewart Resnick.
As always, double check the weather and be safe this weekend with the rain and winds predicted.
Dave
From Round and About:
From the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition: Contact Senator Feinstein Today - "Stop the attacks on salmon, fishing communities, and the ESA!"
Read: What's at Stake
February 17, 2010 -- Please contact Senator Dianne Feinstein today! Ask her to stop her efforts to dismantle the Endangered Species Act's basic protections for California's endangered chinook salmon.
http://ga0.org/campaign/feinsteinrider/in6isw32r7jdnnek?
If passed into law, Senator Feinstein's rollback of protections for endangered salmon in California would have devastating implications for wild salmon and steelhead across West Coast, and all imperiled species across the nation.
Senator Feinstein is proposing an amendment to a federal jobs stimulus bill that, in effect, would suspend rules that protect salmon from being killed by the giant diversion pumps in the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta and would pump more water from the estuary.
Senator Feinstein claims that this amendment will bring jobs to California. But, the closure of the western salmon fisheries has cost 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in the California economy.
Contact Senator Feinstein and ask her to stop killing salmon and the $1.4 billion fishing economy. Ask her not to put an amendment in the jobs legislation that would increase pumping from the Delta!
Thank you for your support and assistance!
Joseph Bogaard
Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition
206-286-4455, 103
Subject: Please Stop the Anti-Salmon, Anti-fishing Jobs Amendment!
Dear Senator Dianne Feinstein,
I urge you not to sponsor legislation restricting Endangered Species Act protections in California's Bay-Delta estuary. Waiving safeguards required under one of our nation's most important environmental laws would have disastrous consequences for one of America's most important ecosystems, California's endangered salmon fishery, and ESA projects across the country.
The amendment you have proposed to introduce would suspend critically important ESA protections for salmon - one of California's signature species - and many other endangered species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the lifeblood of the salmon fishery in California and much of Oregon. Over the past two years, this fishery has been shut down due to the collapse of Central Valley salmon populations. Thousands of jobs have been lost in California and Oregon, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in income, each year. Waiving ESA requirements could close the fishery permanently, with long-term job loss es and economic damage up and down the West Coast.
Salmon are not the only species at risk. Population levels of longfin and Delta smelt are so low that waiving ESA protections could result in the extinction of these species in as little as two years. As the Bay-Delta ecosystem collapses, many other species are not far behind.
The livelihoods of commercial and recreational salmon fishermen, Delta farmers, fishing guides, tackle shops, and communities across California and along the West Coast depend on the environmental protections that your proposed amendment would suspend. And most Californians support protections for endangered species and the people whose livelihoods are entwined with these wonderful creatures.
Please do not let the extinction of one or more endangered species - and the end of a way of life for people who depend on them - be your legacy. I urge you not to proceed with your proposed amendment.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
California's Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers (which drain into San Francisco Bay) are host to 4 separate populations of Chinook salmon -- two of them (winter and spring run) are listed as endangered. The rivers host a steelhead population and this is also listed as an endangered species. The once mighty Sacramento River Fall run Chinook salmon supported commercial fishing throughout California and Oregon, especially after the collapse of populations on the Klamath River. Yesterday, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which sets fishing season along the coast released a report that only 39,500 Sacramento River fall-run returned to spawn in the wild this year -- as recently as 2002, populations numbered near 800,000. This is the third record low population in as many years. Endangered winter and spring-run numbers were also gravely troubling as both populations numbered less than 5,000 fish. All of these declines came despite the complete and unprecedented closure of California's commercial and sport salmon fishing seasons over the past two years -- a terrible price paid by fishing communities across the coast in order to save the fish upon which they rely.
The Sacramento San Joaquin ecosystem is also home to two endangered smelt species, and one endangered sturgeon species. Populations of these and many other non-endangered species are in a state of freefall. Respected scientists conjectured that event the fall-run Chinook salmon population could soon be listed as an endangered species.
Amazingly, California's Senior Senator appears to be moving to eliminate protections for the salmon, steelhead, smelt, and sturgeon just as they need more protection from federal and state legislators. In an effort to blame California's employment woes on environmental protections, Senator Feinstein prepared a rider (amendment) to upcoming employment legislation that would suspend federal Endangered Species Act protections for wild salmon and steelhead for at least 2 years.
This suspension would be the death knell for California's once famous fishing fleet. Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations said, "salmon have been part of California for thousands of years and this report shows we're losing them. If we wipe our salmon out, we'll also be wiping out generations of fishing families from the central California coast to northern Oregon that have all relied on king salmon from the Sacramento River to make a living."
The suspension would also send an ominous message to all who work to protect a healthy environment so that it can provide food, jobs, and recreation for us all. If the Golden State is willing to write off its once-prized fishery (and numerous endangered species), it will mean a bleak future for all wild salmon and steelhead populations across our coast. Please write to California's Senator Feinstein and tell her that her amendment is short-sighted and unacceptable.
Ask her to Save Our Wild Salmon!
Big Ags Power Couple Banking On Brown, Feinstein
The Resnicks Manipulate Water Policy with Big Campaign Contributions
by Dan Bacher
February 16, 2010 -- Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon who owns 115,000 acres of farmland in Kern County, appears to be putting his bets on Jerry Brown as the winner of the gubernatorial race in the November election - even though Brown hasn't officially declared himself as a candidate.
On November 11, 2009, Resnick and his wife, Lynda, the co-owner of the giant Paramount Farms and Roll Corporation, wrote four checks totalling $50,000 for the Brown campaign.
The donations that the Resnicks made to Brown to date exemplify the enormous political influence of Resnick and other water barons exert over California water politics. The Resnicks are the largest tree fruit growers in the world.
Delta advocates fear that campaign contributions from the Resnicks and other big water interests could heavily influence Brown's positions on the peripheral canal, the construction of more dams and the November $11.1 billion water bond. They also fear the Resnicks could pressure Brown to support legislative and administrative attacks on federal plans protecting Delta smelt and Central Valley salmon.
The Resnicks and executives of their companies have donated $3.97 million to candidates and political committees since 1993, mostly in the Golden State, a California Watch review of public records shows, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting, December 6, 2009.
Roll International, one of the largest private water brokers in the U.S., makes millions of dollars in profit off marketing subsidized public water. Through a series of subsidiary companies and organizations, Roll International is able to convert Californias water from a public, shared resource into a private asset that can be sold on the market to the highest bidder, according to Yasha Levine, in How Limousine Liberals, Water Oligarchs and Even Sean Hannity are Hijacking Our Water, in an published in a number of publications.
Resnick was heavily involved in the creation of Kern County Water Bank a controversial underground water storage facility in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The Westside Mutual Water Company, owned by Resnick, now owns 48 percent of the bank. One of the reasons why Central Valley reservoirs were drained so low over the past few years was to fill the water bank and southern California water reservoirs.
The Resnicks have also written big checks to the campaigns of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and presidential candidates from both parties in the 2008 election. They contributed a total of $271,990 to Schwarzeneggers campaign coffers. They havent contributed to the Republican candidates for Governor, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner yet, but dont be surprised if they do.
In response to my emailed questions about Brown's positions about the peripheral canal, new dams, the water bond and the biological opinions, I received the following response from "Ned," a staffer from Jerry Brown 2010.
"Thank you for your email," "Ned" stated. "While Jerry is considering a potential run for Governor, he is not a declared candidate. He has said that he will make a decision on the Governor's race by the filing deadline in March, until that time he is focused on his job as Attorney General. Should he declare a run for Governor, he'll begin to address all the issues and concerns that Californians will find important in choosing their next Governor."
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), quipped about Resnicks contributions to Brown and others. Resnick is an equal opportunity contributor to candidates seekers. He gives money to everybody it doesnt matter if theyre Republican, Democrat or the Anti-Christ, hell try to buy their votes.
For Brown to say that he doesnt have a position on the issues and then to accept major contributions from a guy involved heavily in water politics like Resnick is highly disingenuous, said Barbara Barrigan Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. The contribution to Brown is a prime example of how big agribusiness influences both political parties.
Brown signed the original legislation that authorized the original peripheral canal bond in 1982, but voters overwhelmingly defeated the canal at the ballot box that November.
Brown hasnt indicated his position now on the canal and new dams, but the other candidates have. Meg Whitman is a strong supporter of the peripheral canal, more dams, and increased Delta pumping.
She acknowledged the humanitarian disaster resulting from 35-percent unemployment in some west valley towns and the threat to a region that grows a huge portion of the nations food, according to Whitmans Website, reporting on her visit to Fresno on May 29, 2009. (http://www.megwhitman.com). As governor, she said she would stick with her conviction that saving jobs takes precedence and would use emergency powers to order more pumping from the Delta. In the longer term, she supports more above- and below-ground storage facilities and the construction of a peripheral canal in addition to conservation efforts.
Poizner is also a big backer of the peripheral canal. In an interview with the Bakersfield Californian on April 30, 2009, he stated, I do support more above-ground storage and I do support more water conveyance systems to get the water from where it is to where it needs to go, without completely destroying the delta.
Obama Administration Convenes Panel at Resnicks Request
The recent National Academy of Sciences Delta Panel held in Davis from January 24-28 illustrated the influence of the Resnicks money upon political decisions. Because of a letter that Stewart Resnick wrote to Senator Diane Feinstein, Feinstein pressured the Obama administration to conduct the review of the biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt.
In the letter of September 4, Resnick claimed that the biological opinion to prevent endangered salmon and smelt from becoming extinct was "exacerbating the state's severe drought" because it reduced the water available to irrigate farmland. He claimed that "sloppy science" by federal fishery agencies had led to "regulatory-induced water shortages." "I really appreciate your involvement in this issue," he stated.
The administration invited representatives of corporate agribusiness, including Resnicks Astroturf group, the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, and Southern California water districts to testify, but they invited no representatives of recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, Delta farming groups, California Indian Tribes and environmental justice communities, the people most impacted by fish collapses.
The NAS Panel is a typical example of the pay to play corruption endemic to California and U.S. politics. The Resnicks and associates have contributed $29,000 to Feinstein and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she has sought re-election.
The Resnicks and other corporate agribusiness interests, southern California land speculators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are engaged in an intense Astroturf campaign to weaken pumping restrictions protecting threatened and endangered species under the federal biological opinions for Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales.
They are also pushing for the approval of a water bond that, combined with the water policy package passed by the California Legislature in November, creates a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal or tunnel and Temperance Flats and Sites reservoirs.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who received $15,600 for his 2010 campaign from the Resnicks on July 30, 2009, strong-armed the water package through the Legislature in spite of strong opposition from his constituents and environmental, fishing and Delta farming groups.
The canal will cost $23 billion to $53.8 billion to build at a time when California is in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression - and the budgets for teachers, game wardens, health care for children and state parks have been slashed.
Unfortunately, you can expect political influence by corporate giants like the Resnicks to increase even more, due to the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision that blocks bans on corporate spending for political candidates.
For a complete list of Resnicks contributions, go tohttp://californiawatch.org/data/resnick-and-associates-spend-nearly-4-million-campaigns.
From Round and About: January 31st, 2010
Question: Is it legal to fillet stripers and sturgeon once they are brought ashore?
Answer: Yes. No law prohibits filleting once they are brought ashore.
Discussion: The prohibitions in current laws and regulations, i.e., FG Code sections 5508, 5509, and T14 Section 27.65(c), only apply to situations prior to bringing the fish ashore. Once the fish is off the boat and/or on shore these laws are not applicable. And, in the case of Section 27.65(c) it only applies for fish taken in Ocean Waters.
Additionally, T14 Section 1.62 prohibits possession of under or oversized fish. But, it does not prohibit filleting. The angler is under no obligation to keep the fish whole or intact under this regulation, or to prove any pieces or parts came from a legal size fish. However, if the filet size appears that it is from an sub legal sized fish, a citation may be issues and the person in possession may have to appear in court to defend the filet size.
Historically, these laws have been applied to allow filleting of fish on shore. And it has been understood that “on shore” includes docks & wharves extending from the shore. Additionally, it is legal to fillet fish while on a boat that is on a trailer and out of the water, e.g., once the boat is “on shore” everything on it is also “on shore”.
Laws (emphasis added to clarify scope of the law)
F&G Code sections:
5508. It is unlawful to possess on any boat or to bring ashore any fish upon which a size or weight limit is prescribed in such a condition that its size or weight cannot be determined. The commission may adopt regulations, under which fish other than whole fish may be brought ashore, which establish sizes or weights for cleaned or otherwise cut fish equivalent to sizes or weights for whole fish.
5509. It is unlawful to possess on any boat or to bring ashore any fish in such a condition that the species cannot be determined, except as otherwise provided in this code or regulations adopted pursuant thereto. The commission, subject to the provisions of Section 5508, may adopt regulations whereby fish taken by persons fishing from a vessel licensed pursuant to Section 7920 may be brought ashore in such a condition that the species cannot be determined.
T14:
27.65. Filleting of Fish on Vessels.
(c) Fish That May Not be Filleted: No person shall fillet on any boat or bring ashore as fillets the following fish: cabezon, greenlings of the genus Hexagrammos, salmon, striped bass, sturgeon, and any species of flatfish, except Californiahalibut may be filleted or brought ashore as fillets south of Point Arena (Mendocino County).
1.62. Minimum and Maximum Size.
No fish, mollusks or crustaceans less than the legal minimum size or greater than the maximum legal size (total, fork or alternate) may be possessed, except as otherwise provided. Total length is the longest straight-line measurement from the tip of the head to the end of the longest lobe of the tail. Fork length is the straight-line distance from the tip of the head to the center of the tail fin. Tip of the head shall be the most anterior point on the fish with the mouth closed and the fish lying flat on its side. Alternate length is the straight-line distance from the base of the foremost spine of the first dorsal fin to the end of the longest lobe of the tail. Unless otherwise provided, all fish, mollusks or crustaceans less than the legal minimum size or greater than the maximum legal size must be returned immediately to the water from which they were taken
Meet Cathy Reheis-Boyd
Big Oil Takes Over Marine "Protection" in California
by Dan Bacher
Corporate greenwashing in California under Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "green governor," has become so bizarre and egregious that no political satirist, comedian or novelist could concoct fictional schemes that rival the reality of current politics in the state.
Only in Schwarzenegger's California would a governor appoint an oil industry lobbyist to a key administration position supposedly promoting "marine protection" at a time when oil companies are seeking to expand drilling operations off the California coast. Schwarzenegger strongly supports linking $140 million in annual funding for State Parks to approval of the Tranquillon Ridge oil-drilling project off the coast of Santa Barbara (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/22/oil-parks-plan-derided-blackmail).
With this in mind, it is not surprising that Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman in August 2009 announced the Governor's appointment of Cathy Reheis-Boyd, the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Western States Petroleum Association, as chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force for the remainder of the MLPA South Project.
After having served on the MLPA Task Force for the North Central Coast, Chrisman and Schwarzenegger apparently thought she had done such a good job of promoting the fast-track MLPA process that he appointed her to the new position.
Under the guise of "marine protection," Reheis-Boyd and other task force members developed a "marine protected area" plan on the North Central Coast that banned the Kashia Pomo Tribe and other American Indian Nations from harvesting seaweed, mussels and abalone as they had done for centuries from their traditional areas off Stewarts Point and Point Arena. In spite of overwhelming opposition to the plan by North Coast environmentalists, seaweed harvesters, fishermen and Indian Tribes, the Fish and Game Commission voted for the "Integrated Preferred Alternative" (IPA) adopted by the task force on August 5.
When the first settlers came to the coast, they didnt know how to feed themselves," Lester Pinola, the past chairman of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria in Sonoma County, told the Commission before the vote. "Our people showed them how to eat out of the ocean. In my opinion, this was a big mistake.
In yet another installment in this living political satire, the Board of Directors of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) on October 16, 2009 announced that Reheis-Boyd would assume the role of President of the oil and natural gas industry trade association January 1, 2010.
“No one is more capable, experienced and deserving of leading our Association into the future than Cathy Reheis-Boyd”, said Gary Yesavage, President of Global Manufacturing for Chevron Corporation and Chairman of WSPAs Board of Directors. “Cathy is a great leader and the Board is 100 percent confident she will continue to be a forceful and successful advocate for our industry.”
The Western States Petroleum Association is the leading petroleum industry trade association in six western states California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Its twenty-seven members include major integrated oil and natural gas companies as well as independent refiners and marketers, and independent producers. Formed in 1906, it is the oldest petroleum industry trade association in the United States.
Reheis-Boyd, 52, has become the Associations "primary expert and spokesperson on climate change issues" and has played a key role regionally, nationally and internationally in public policy discussions on these issues, the news release noted.
Providing our region’s future energy supplies and meeting our climate change objectives are going to be major challenges for all of us, not just the petroleum industry, said Reheis-Boyd. WSPA members will be integral to solving those challenges and I am looking forward to helping craft those solutions.
A Westlands Connection?
Ironically, the contact for the association listed at the top of the release was Tupper Hull, the former spokesman for the Westlands Water District. The district, considered by many to be the "Darth Vader” of California water politics, has continually fought every move by fishermen, tribes and environmentalists to restore salmon, steelhead and other fish populations of the Trinity, Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
John Lewallen, longtime North Coast environmentalist, seaweed harvester and member of the Public Ocean Access Network( oceannetwork [at] mcn.org), believes that Reheis-Boyd's position as an "oil industry superstar" is a conflict of interest with her position as chair of a task force charged with developing marine protected areas (MPAs).
"Reheis-Boyd is moving right on up, really advancing the cause of the oil industry," commented Lewallen. "By setting up these no-take marine reserves and kicking fishermen, Indians, seaweed harvesters and other ocean food providers off traditional areas of the ocean, the Schwarzenegger administration is paving the way for offshore oil drilling. Twenty-three percent of the nation's offshore oil reserves are off the coast of California. The Point Arena Basin off Mendocino is on track now to be leased for drilling by the Mineral Management Services."
Lewallen noted that under Reheis-Boyd's "leadership," the Southern California community plan for new Marine Protected Areas, developed over 14 months by 64 stakeholders and many community groups, was "thrown in the trash can" on Nov. 10 by the Blue Ribbon Task Force of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative.
"The Southern California Blue Ribbon Task Force 'Integrated Preferred Alternative' is devastating to fishing communities, but good for offshore oil drilling interests," said Lewallen, the co-founder of the "Seaweed Rebellion" movement and longtime opponent of offshore oil drilling, the clearcutting of forests and corporate greenwashing.
Reheis-Boyd's ascendance on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and in the oil industry are no coincidence, since the MLPA task force's decisions provide a "green" veneer to plans by the oil industry, wave energy companies and corporate aquaculture to privative public trust ocean resources.
"The people of the state of the California are being denied access to sustainable ocean food by the MLPA process," said Barbara Stephens-Lewallen, John's wife, who will be banned from sustainably harvesting seaweed off Point Arena starting April 1, 2010, the result of the August vote by Schwarzenegger's hand picked Fish and Game Commission.
John and Barbara strongly opposed the appointment of Reheis-Boyd to the Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Marine Life Protection (MLPA) Initiatives North Coast Study Region, due to her obvious conflicts of interest. Unfortunately, Mike Chrisman, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Secretary for Natural Resources, in November appointed Reheis-Boyd to the controversial panel.
The Role of Reheis-Boyd and other Corporate Interests
What the heck is an oil industry lobbyist doing on a task force supposedly overseeing "marine protection" in California?
Political insiders believe that Reheis-Boyd has been chosen for this position so she can protect the oil industry's interests on the California coast. The oil industry is seeking to open up new areas to oil drilling off the California coast, particularly in the Point Arena Basin and on the Tranquillon Ridge. She was apparently appointed to the North Central Coast, North Coast and South Coast Task Forces to make sure that marine protected areas (MPAs) don't impinge upon existing or planned future oil drilling operations off the coast.
The other members of Schwarzenegger's task force are Gregory Schem, president and chief executive officer, Harbor Real Estate Group; Jimmy Smith, chair, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors; Virginia Strom-Martin, advocate, Los Angeles Unified School District; William Anderson, president, Westrec Marina Management; Meg Caldwell, director and senior lecturer on law, Stanford Law School Environment and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program; Roberta Cordero, lawyer, co-founder Chumash Maritime Association; and Cindy Gustafson, district general manager, Tahoe City Public Utility District.
Schwarzenegger's choice of William Anderson, president, Westrec Marina Management, is also quite curious. "Focusing on the service side of the marina industry, Westrec is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of marina operating information in the business; handling fuel docks, ship's stores, boat repair and maintenance, commercial leasing, restaurants, campgrounds and lodging facilities," according to Westrec's website, http://www.westrec.com.
Just like having an oil industry official on a task force designed to create marine protected areas is an obvious conflict of interest, isn't having a marina operation executive on the panel a conflict of interest? Could Anderson be on the task force to make sure that marine reserves don't impede on marina operation and expansion plans now in the works?
The appointment of Gregory Schem, president and chief executive officer, Harbor Real Estate Group, is also bizarre. Why should a real estate corporation officer be presiding over a supposedly "environmental process? What background does he have in fisheries or "marine protection? to justify his appointment?
A broad coalition of North Coast environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and seaweed harvesters fear that these corporate officials were appointed to the MLPA Task Force to remove the strongest protectors of fish and the oceans and most ardent opponents of oil drilling from the water to clear the path to the development of offshore oil rigs, marina projects, corporate aquaculture and wave energy projects off the North Coast.
The MLPA, passed by the Legislature in 1999, has under Schwarzenegger become an surrealistic parody of "marine protection." The MLPA under Schwarzenegger does nothing to stop pollution and habitat destruction on the ocean, as the legislation originally intended to do, but only aims to further restrict sustainable fishermen and seaweed harvesters on the most heavily restricted stretch of ocean waters on the entire planet.
These MPAs do nothing to keep the ocean healthy," said Vern Goehring, Manager of the California Fisheries Coalition. "They do nothing to improve water quality."
North Coast Indian Tribes see the MLPA process as a threat to their sovereignty and culture. Its one of the largest challenges coming forward to the tribe in a really long time, said Smith River Rancheria tribal administrator Russ Crabtree at a recent Del Norte County Board of Supervisors meeting, as quoted in the Crescent City Triplicate. “I see this as a challenge to tribal sovereignty" (http://www.triplicate.com/20100113107934/News/Local-News/Sovereignty-eyed-as-fish-limits-discussed).
The Schwarzenegger administration continues to fast track the MLPA process in spite of a June 31 study in Science magazine that revealed that the California current features the least exploited and most restored marine ecosystem population of any place studied (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/01/18613625.php).
Much of the motivation for the MLPA was concern about the state of the groundfish stocks - there is clear evidence that these can be rebuilt without MPAs resulting from the MLPA that have only recently begun to be implemented, said Dr. Ray Hilborn, the co-author of the article with Boris Worm and 19 other scientists. The benefits of the MPAs established under the MLPA will be primarily to have some areas of high abundance of species with limited mobility.
Is Ocean Privatization on the Agenda?
Even worse, the fast track MLPA process under Schwarzenegger is funded by the Resource Legacy Fund Foundation (RLFF), a shadowy organization supplied with millions and millions of dollars every year through the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation and other corporate entities. The foundation heavily funds the corporate environmental NGOs that are pushing so hard for their way in the MLPA process.
The Stephens-Lewallens are outraged that a private corporation, a group with dark ties to some of the worst corporate greenwashers on the planet, is funding the MLPA Initiative.
"A shadowy group called the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation has taken over the process of setting up Marine Protected Areas, and is moving to finance and control fisheries law enforcement and the making of all fisheries regulations," added John Lewallen. "The sooner Californians unite to stop the private takeover of Californias fisheries management, the better."
At the same time, many of these NGOs backed the water policy/bond package that clears the path to the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams that will result in the destruction of the California Delta ecosystem. While MLPA proponents are pushing for more redundant restrictions on North Coast coastal fishing communities, they apparently made a deal with the Governor and Legislators to back legislation that is likely to seal the doom of collapsing Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, striped bass and other fish populations.
Has the MLPA Initiative under Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor in California history for fish and the environment, in reality become the Marine Life Privatization Act?
Meanwhile, the MLPA Initiative and California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) today (January 29) announced the appointment of the 31-member MLPA North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group. For the press release and list of stakeholders, go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/ncproject.asp#members
Storied Delta to come alive
Pacific creating historic archive
By Alex Breitler Record Staff Writer January 29, 2010
STOCKTON - Bob Benedetti respects the 15 scientists from the National Research Council who have spent most of this week studying the water supply and environment of the Delta.
"They're all first-class people, but there isn't a humanist or a social scientist among them," he said Thursday. "The Delta has been seen as a water preserve or as a nature preserve but not as a place where people live and have a history."
The University of the Pacific political science professor hopes Pacific can change that - by telling the Delta's story.
Benedetti and Margit Aramburu, director of Pacific's Natural Resource Institute, have pitched a plan to survey and archive the historical, social, cultural and ecological resources of the entire Delta, putting the information online and in book form.
It's a task Benedetti and Aramburu say has never been attempted. But given all the changes that may occur as the fight continues over Delta water, they don't want to delay.
"The time is now," Aramburu said.
Their research would culminate in publication of an in-depth guide - a step toward making the Delta a desired destination, said Benedetti, head of Pacific's Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership.
An outline of the project was to be received Thursday night by the Delta Protection Commission in West Sacramento.
It's still just a concept. The university plans to seek grant funding later this year from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Benedetti estimates the cost of the project at $250,000. Students would help with the mounds of necessary research, in part by interviewing Delta residents, Benedetti said.
The Delta has long suffered from an identity crisis. Even in Stockton, many don't know what the estuary is or what purposes it serves.
What you'll read in the news is that it provides water for two-thirds of California and habitat for 500 species of wildlife.
But what of its tiny legacy towns? Its diversity? Its festivals, artists and poets? They are often forgotten.
"This is terrific news," Stockton historian and former Councilwoman Sylvia Sun Minnick said Thursday. "We've had so much of the Chinese and Japanese and Filipino contributions out there."
As the only four-year university within the official boundaries of the Delta, it makes sense that Pacific should take up the challenge, Benedetti said. The campus is tucked just inside the estuary's easternmost legal boundary, which runs more or less north to south along Pacific Avenue through the heart of the city.
The university plans to work with the small museums and libraries scattered across the Delta as well as with the nonprofit Discover the Delta Foundation, which intends to build a large visitor center at Highways 12 and 160.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com.”
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Northwind Charters – (707) 826-7201
Eureka:
Full Throttle Fishing Capt. Gary Blasi (707) 498-7473
Shelter Cove:
Shelter Cove Sport Fishing Capt. Trent Slate (707) 923-1668 codking.com
Ft Bragg:
North Coast Fishing Adventures Fort Bragg (707) 964-3000
Bodega Bay:
Bodega Bay Sport Center (707) 875-3344
SF Bay & Golden Gate:
Happy Hooker – Capt. Jim Smith (510) 223-5388
California Dawn – Capt. James Smith (510) 773-5511
Emeryville Sport Center (510) 654-6040
Half Moon Bay:
Huck Finn Sportfishing Center, Half Moon Bay (650) 726-7133
Santa Cruz:
Fish On Sportfishing (six pack) (408) 348-4866
Monterey:
Chris’s Landing (831) 375-5951
Delta:
Jay Sorensen – Jolly Jay’s Guide Service (209) 478-6645
Mark Delnero – Fin Addict Sport Fishing (209) 367-4665
Jay Lopes – Right Hook Sport Fishing (916) 417-5670
Mark Wilson’s Sport Fishing – (916) 682-1630
The Fishing Instructor – Randy Pringle (209) 543-6260
Intimidator Sport Fishing – Captain Mike Gravert (916) 806-3030
North Wind Outfitters – RJ Waldron – (925) 323-1928
Guides - North Coast Rivers:
Bruce McGregor – North Coast Outfitters (707) 694-9444
Kenny Armstrong Guide Service (707) 498-4087
Wally Johnson (530) 496-3291
Steve Huber (530) 623-1918
Little Rays Tackle Lower Klamath (707) 482-7725
Guides Central Valley:
JD Richey (916) 388-1956
Off-Duty Sport Fishing – Jesse Hall (916) 715-0041
RH Guide Service – Raith Heryford (530) 674-5871
High Country Lakes:
Rick Kennedy Tight Lines Guide Service (Eagle, Stampede, Davis) (530)263-0990
Tom Noxen Fish Traveler Guide Service (Eagle Lake) (530) 825-3524
Brian Roccucci Guide Service (Eagle. Davis, Bucks, Almanor) (530) 283-4103
Mother Lode Lakes:
Gold Country Sport Fishing: Monte Smith – (209) 848-2746
Fishn’ Dan’s Guide Service – Danny Layne (209) 586-2383
Radio Shows
Sep Hendrickson's "California Sportsmen" outdoor radio show Saturdays from
6:00 AM to 8:00 AM on 1140 AM. You will find a ton of great info listening to this show!
Ground Fish were also seriously curtailed last year (2009), though we can still take the certain species like blacks and blues, with spear guns from boat or with poles from shore only.
