What's New
Plans are currently under way to establish more Marine Protected Areas
(MPAs) off the coast of California.
Legislation passed in 1999 requires California develop a plan for establishing networks of MPAs
in California
waters to protect marine habitat and preserve ecosystem integrity. The state is reviewing plans for MPAs in each
of California's coastal regions.
In December, the state established MPAs off the central coast
of the state and theyare now looking to establish parks in the North Coast- Alder Creek
(five miles north of Point Arena) to Pigeon Point area.
Click here to see a map of the region under review.
Brief Summary
A vigorous, multi-year campaign led by The Ocean
Conservancy to establish a statewide network of marine protected areas
(MPAs), in California, achieved a major milestone on August 15th. With
a unanimous 5-0 vote, the California Fish and Game Commission approved
a network of 29 MPAs covering over 200 square miles of state waters
along California’s central coast. This plan, the first step in a
master-plan for the entire coast, should receive final approval in
early 2007 after environmental and regulatory review.
Over
100 years ago, Teddy Roosevelt revolutionized land conservation policy
by creating national parks, forests and wilderness areas. Today, these
lands and the concept behind them are considered one of America’s
greatest legacies. Earlier this week, the California Fish and Game
Commission took an action that was no less bold or historic by
transforming how our oceans are managed. In voting to create a network
of underwater marine protected areas along more than 200 miles of water
between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, the Schwarzenegger
administration took a significant first step to revive fish populations
and productive habitats all along the central coast.
The
concept of marine protected areas includes marine reserves, where no
fishing is allowed, marine conservation areas (where some commercial
and/or recreational fishing is permitted) and marine parks where only
recreational fishing is permitted. The concept has been endorsed by
thousands of scientists as the first step towards restoring the health
and biodiversity of the oceans. Creating marine protected areas is a
strategy urged by two national ocean commissions as a step toward
ecosystem-based management of our oceans rather than the often failed
results of managing individual species. In the U.S., we have
established marine reserve networks in island locales like the Channel
Islands (off of Santa Barbara), the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and the
Florida Keys. What’s historic and unique about this week’s California
decision is that it is the first time this bold idea has been applied
to the U.S. shoreline, adjacent to millions of people and multiple port
communities, and is the first time that a network of marine protected
areas has been initiated throughout an entire state. It required a
difficult balancing of political, economic and environmental
complexities. The decision involved years of negations between
scientists, fishermen, conservationists and government officials.
While
the law calling for a master plan to designate marine reserves along
the entire California coast passed in 1999, implementation languished
for several years due to budget and staff shortages. The process was
jump- started by newly elected Governor Schwarzenegger in late -2004
through a unique private-public partnership. What followed was a year
of stakeholder meetings advised by science teams, followed by
recommendations of a Governor-appointed Blue Ribbon Task Force. It
culminated in a proposal by the Department of Fish and Game that was
strengthened and approved by the State Fish and Game Commission.
The
final package creates a network of 29 marine protected areas that
comprise more than 200 square miles (about 18%) of state waters between
Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz Counties. This will establish a model for
additional protected areas to be established along the entire coast.
The
Commission’s vote occurred at the end of a second 12-hr marathon public
hearing, in Monterey, in a hotel conference room that earlier was
filled with an audience of 400 people.
The
California coast is a prime candidate for marine protected areas that
scientists have recommended to reverse damage and depletion of ocean
ecosystems. The state’s fishing fleet is half the size it was 25 years
ago. Many species rockfish (also called red snapper) have populations
that are less than 10% of their historic numbers, and are so depleted
that the federal government declared the entire west coast rockfish
fishery a federal disaster in 2000.
Studies
show protected ocean areas harbor older and bigger fish that can
produce up to 200 times as many fish as younger ones. These fish can,
in turn, repopulate depleted species which migrate out to places where
they can be harvested. Protecting the places fish need to feed and
breed is like creating an endowment. We can live off the interest quite
happily, but if we dip into the capital, as we have done time and
again, we are living on borrowed time. Marine protected areas help
rebuild the capital needed to sustain current and future generations of
fishermen and break the cycle of boom and bust fisheries.
