MLPA Areas in the North Central region went into effect as of Saturday May 1st, 2010.  Please be careful of the areas and/or species you harvest.  It could mean the difference between an enjoyable day out and a huge fine.

 

Note from Charlie Nothoff, North Coast Regional Stakeholder’s Group member
Click here for California DFGs MLPA Pages
Maps of the North Central MPAs
North Coast MLPA General Information
South Coast MLPA News
MLMA General Information

 

Join the Albion Harbor Regional Alliance and make your wishes known.  Please follow the link, fill out their survey and help bring up the numbers to prevent the MLPA stake holders from ignoring us.
http://www.albionharbor.org/

Note excerpted from BA_Diving group on Yahoo:
 from North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group member Charlie Nothoff, dated July 27, 2010

Well, after a month or so of construction projects, family vacations, and not enough diving, I'm back to dealing with MLPA issues, so I pulled up some old BA Diving messages. North Coast Regional Stakeholders' Group (NCRSG) has meetings in Fort Bragg this Thursday and Friday.

Members of the NCRSG are doing our best to create MPAs that make sense in the North Coast Region (just north of Pt. Arena to the Oregon border). One of our largest challenges is keeping the public informed.

I had to sit down with an old friend (an avid fisherman & hunter) yesterday and explain that fishing is still allowed in most of California. He was under the impression that in the regions where MPAs have been implemented (Central, North Central and soon Southern) all fishing is now prohibited. The MLPA does not shut down fishing in California. In fact, if well managed, it can enhance fish stocks.

The flip side comes from mainly-well- informed people I respect like Marc. The day I received the message below, I had vermillion rockfish for dinner that had been caught off Patrick's Point. Everyone in the boat caught at least one. We still have healthy stocks of most rockfish species.

The main differences between the North Coast and the rest of the state are the smaller population, remote location, and less hospitable ocean conditions.

Fisheries are not "in decline from San Diego to Crescent City". Check out a recent report from NOAA:

http://spo.nmfs. noaa.gov/ olo6thedition/ 26--Unit% 2015.pdf

Most commercial species are not overfished and shown to be rebuilding. This report suggests that much of the decline in fish stocks seen in the 80's and 90's can be attributed to "reduced productivity of the California Current". Existing closures including Rockfish Conservation Areas are used to manage fisheries.

I too am concerned about California salmon stocks. Preserving parts of the ocean will do nothing to increase salmon stocks. Salmon do not spawn in the ocean. Water-use issues and river habitat degradation are major factors affecting salmon populations. Those are issues that will shape California politics for quite awhile.

I assure you, I am still listening to all constituents. I think the NCRSG is working on MPAs that preserve important ocean habitat and consider the unique challenges to ocean use on the North Coast. Please take a look at Ruby and Sapphire Draft MPA Proposals on MarineMap.

http://northcoast. marinemap. org/

I appreciate input from divers around the state. At the end of the day, I need to make decisions based on my almost 40 years of diving and living on the North Coast.

Good Dives,
Charlie

To see whats been proposed for the North Coast so far...
For a better idea of the various proposals being set forth for the North region (north of Point Arena) follow this link from NorCalSkinDivers to the MarineMap.org site, provided by DSBDC member Gary D.  This site displays official alternatives, as recommended by several different groups, for reserves, conservation areas or stewardship zones and will superimpose them as maps  onto Google Earth 3D. (If you don’t already have Google Maps 3D Plug-in for InternetExplorer 8 installed, there is a link on that page allowing you to install it.  You’ll have to quit IE8 after installation and restart it to view the maps.)  To view the alternatives, click on each of the “Arrays” listed on the left side of the MarineMap.org page.  You’ll see that some of these proposals are very severe in their selection of no-take areas.

California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Announcement

California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311 Sacramento, CA 95814 916.653.5656
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Jan. 29, 2010

CONTACT:
Annie Reisewitz, MLPA Initiative
(858) 228-0526
Kirsten Macintyre, Department of Fish and Game
(916) 322-8988

MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force Chair and California Department of Fish and Game Director Announce North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group

The diverse cross-interest group of marine stakeholders will meet Feb. 8-9 in Eureka

SACRAMENTO – The MLPA Initiative and California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) today announced the appointment of the MLPA North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group. The 31-member, cross-interest group (list attached) will provide local expertise and knowledge to improve the design and management of the north coast portion of a statewide network of marine protected areas (MPAs).

“These outstanding individuals each bring first-hand knowledge of the marine resources along the north coast,” said DFG Director John McCamman. “I am confident that as a group they will successfully integrate the diverse interests of their constituents into a science-based proposal that improves our management of California’s ocean environment.”

Collectively, the stakeholder group members represent broad interests and perspectives from the state’s north coast region, from the border with Oregon to the Point Arena area in Mendocino County. The stakeholder group includes, among others, representatives of recreational angling and diving groups, tribes, commercial fishing and other ocean-dependent business interests, ports and harbors, conservation groups, educational and research interests, and government agencies.

Under the guidance of a blue ribbon task force, the stakeholder group is responsible for working with a science advisory team and MLPA staff to evaluate existing marine protected areas within the north coast study region in relation to the goals of the MLPA and to develop alternative MPA proposals that meet the act’s requirements. Individual stakeholders will also conduct outreach to constituent groups to encourage public involvement in the project.

“I look forward to working with this unique and diverse group of ocean enthusiasts,” said Cindy Gustafson, chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force. “Their interest in and dedication to this process will make certain that we successfully maximize ocean protections for future generations while minimizing short-term socioeconomic impacts to the north coast community.”

The first meeting of the stakeholder group will be held Monday, Feb. 8 and Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 at the Red Lion Inn, 1929 Fourth Street in Eureka.

From Feb. to Nov. 2010 the NCRSG will meet approximately seven times in two-day meetings, including a combination of formal plenary meetings and informal work sessions, in various locations throughout the study region. Plenary meetings are open to the public and videotaped for simultaneous webcasting and later viewing on the Internet. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in a number of ways; they also will have opportunities to provide comments on evolving MPA proposals and other elements of the process.

“The appointment of the regional stakeholder group marks the next phase of the north coast MPA planning process,” said Ken Wiseman, MLPA Initiative executive director. “It brings together the initial MPA ideas already generated by community groups as well as other interested members of the public to further refine and improve upon them.”

The MLPA Initiative’s MPA planning process began in 2009 with initial outreach and then the development of draft external MPA arrays from community groups. The first-round draft MPA arrays developed by community groups, and subsequent science evaluations, will be used to help inform the stakeholder group as it begins its work in the next two phases of developing alternative MPA proposals in this science-based, stakeholder-driven process.

In Oct. 2009, the California Department of Fish and Game appointed the MLPA Master Plan Science Advisory Team (SAT), which is comprised of 21 scientists with a variety of expertise in marine life protection, the use of MPAs as a management tool, underwater ecosystems found in California waters, water quality and other related subjects, most with specific expertise to the north coast region.

The SAT is charged with providing scientific advice to the regional stakeholder group regarding issues such as MPA placement, size and habitat considerations. The SAT will further support the process reviewing draft documents and addressing scientific questions raised through the planning process.

The California Natural Resources Agency and DFG have partnered with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation and others in an initiative to help achieve the MLPA goals. The MLPA directs the state to reevaluate and redesign California’s system of MPAs to increase coherence and effectiveness in protecting the state's marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems and marine natural heritage, as well as to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems subject to minimal human disturbance. The MLPA also requires that the best readily-available science be used in the redesign process, as well as the advice and assistance of scientists, resource managers, experts, stakeholders and members of the public.

California is taking a regional approach to redesigning MPAs along its 1,100 mile coastline, and has divided the state into five study regions; the MLPA North Coast Study Region, extending from the California border with Oregon to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County, is the fourth of the five study regions to undergo the MPA planning process.

The MLPA Initiative’s north coast MPA planning process is expected to be completed in December 2010, when the MLPA Blue Ribbon task Force will present its recommendations to the California Fish and Game Commission, the decision-making body under the MLPA.

For more information about the MLPA Initiative, please visit www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa.

California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Members of the North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group

Revised January 27, 2010

Southern California MLPA News
Commission to Discuss Extending South Coast MLPA Comment Period

by Dan Bacher

The California Fish and Game Commission will hold a special meeting on September 29 in McClellan, California to discuss and consider a potential extension to the public comment period for the South Coast Region Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.

Fishing and conservation groups are supporting a 90 day extension of the controversial MLPA process to provide the public with sufficient time to review and comment on this report, while some environmental NGOs are opposing the delay in their effort to keep the initiative on its fast track. The initiative is privately funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, led by executive director Michael Eaton.

The DEIR, released on August 18, analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the marine protected area (MPA) proposals currently under consideration for this area. The DEIR was given a 45-day review and comment period. The DEIR is a 548-page document that addresses a number of complex environmental issues that require careful consideration.

“Decisions made under the MLPA process, including the DEIR, will have significant and long-lasting consequences for angling and boating in the region,” according to a statement from Keep America Fishing (http://www.keepamericafishing.org). “The public deserves enough time to carefully review and provide input on the DEIR to ensure it is as comprehensive, informative and accurate as possible and is not driven by a need to meet arbitrary deadlines.”

In contrast, an action alert from the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (http://www.independent.com/news/2010/sep/20/channelkeeper-asks-help-protecting-socal-coast) claimed, "Delaying plans for Southern California could threaten the historic Marine Life Protection Act—one of our state’s most important ocean protection laws that calls for the creation of a statewide network of marine protected areas.”

"Half of this network already exists along the California coast from Point Conception to Point Arena, where MPAs are already working to restore ocean health in breathtaking biodiversity hot spots like the Channel Islands, Point Sur, and Point Reyes," the Channelkeeper stated. "But it’s up to the Fish and Game Commission to complete the statewide network of protected areas, starting with Southern California.”

Unfortunately, the Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates fail to acknowledge that the so-called “marine protected area” network is a grotesque parody of real marine protection being used by Schwarzenegger to greenwash his abysmal environmental legacy. This is the same governor that has presided over the collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other fish populations while campaigning for a peripheral canal, new dams and increased water exports out of the California Delta.

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), a comprehensive, landmark law signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, is very broad in its scope. The law was intended to not only restrict or prohibit fishing in a network of “marine protected areas,” but to restrict or prohibit other human activities including coastal development and water pollution.

“Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California’s ocean waters,” the law states in Fish and Game Code Section 2851, section c.

In contrast with the intent of the original law, the MLPA Initiative under Schwarzenegger has taken oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its bizarre concept of “marine protection.” The MLPA would do nothing to stop another Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon oil disaster from devastating the California coast.

The Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates also fail to acknowledge the corruption and conficts of interest that have proliferated under the process. The Governor has installed an oil industry lobbyist, a marina developer, a real estate executive and other corporate interests with numerous conflicts of interests as “marine guardians” on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces to remove Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters from the water in these fake marine protected areas.

In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served as the chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) for the South Coast, as well as a member of the task forces for the North Coast and North Central Coast. This oil industry superstar has in recent months repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast. How can there be any justice under this initiative when Schwarzenegger's head MLPA official for the South Coast is the head oil lobbyist for the Western United States?

On July 21, over 300 people, including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers, environmentalists and seaweed harvesters, peacefully took over a meeting of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of tribal gathering rights and the corporate greenwashing that have proliferated under the initiative.

"This is the largest demonstration on the North Coast since the Redwood Summer of 1990," Dan Hamburg, former North Coast Congressman and current candidate for the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, told me as we marched through the streets of Fort Bragg on the way to the meeting.

“Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is systematically decimate our ability to be who we are,” said Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal ceremonial leader and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition. “That is the definition of cultural genocide.”

The privatization of ocean conservation management under the shadowy and unaccountable Resources Legacy Fund Foundation is at the core of everything that is wrong with the MLPA process. The time has come for a suspension of the privately-funded initiative, and for state and federal investigations of the conflicts of interests and violations of state, federal and international laws that have bloomed under the MLPA process.

I urge everybody to send a letter to the Fish and Game Commission (FGC) urging them to extend the comment period on the DEIR to 90 days by going to http://www.keepamericafishing.org. The FGC needs to hear from you before the upcoming meeting!

You should also attend the commission meeting on September 29. The FGC will be receiving public comment during this meeting. This is your chance to convey to the FGC - in person - the importance of allowing an extension.

The meeting will be held from Noon - 5 p.m. PDT at the Lion's Gate Hotel & Conference Center, 3410 Westover Street, McClellan, California. For more details regarding the September 29 FGC meeting, visit http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings/2010/2010mtgs.asp.

For more information on the MLPA Initiative, read my piece, "The questions that Arnold's MLPA proponents don’t want to answer," http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/31/18657284.php.

 

MARINE LIFE MANAGEMENT ACT

From: posting-oceanpublic <posting-oceanpublic@resources.ca.gov>
To: oceanpublic@lists.resources. ca.gov
Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 11:31:47 AM
Subject: Marine Life Management Act public comment period now under way

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MEMORANDUM
TO: California Ocean and Coastal Community
FROM: Sam Schuchat, Council Secretary, Ocean Protection Council
DATE: January 6, 2010
SUBJECT: Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) Lessons Learned project – *REMINDER* – Public comment period now under way


The Marine Life Management Act Lessons Learned (MLMA LL) project draft report, Lessons Learned from California’s MLMA, is currently available for public review and input. This report assesses lessons learned about the implementation of the MLMA and provides recommendations to direct future MLMA efforts by the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Fish and Game Commission.

The draft report can be accessed from the MLMA LL project page on the OPC Web site: http://www.opc.ca.gov/2009/04/mlma-lessons-learned-project/. You are invited to provide comments; specific thoughts or suggestions relevant to the recommendations section are particularly welcomed. Please send all comments electronically to: MLMALL@scc.ca.gov. Deadline for comments is January 31, 2010.

Thank you for your interest in the MLMA LL project and we look forward to receiving your thoughts and comments.

 

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