Coastal Protection At Last: Marine Act in Works Since 1999
By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.
Apr. 14–In what its president termed “something historic and extraordinary,” the California Fish and Game Commission on Friday voted unanimously to create the state’s first system of coastal marine protected areas.
The action effectively launches the state’s Marine Life Protection Act program, which has been in the works since legislation requiring creation of the protected areas was passed in 1999.
“With our action today, California has embarked upon something historic and extraordinary,” said Richard Rogers, the commission’s president. “With this vote, we have taken the first step to return our ocean waters to the place they used to be: an ocean full of sustainable abundance.”
The commission voted unanimously in favor of its preferred alternative: designating 29 protected areas representing approximately 18 percent of state waters designated as no-take state marine reserves along the Central Coast from Pigeon Point to Point Conception.
“This is big. This is a watershed transformation of how states restore and protect the oceans for future generations,” said Ocean Conservancy Vice President Warner Chabot. “No other state is close to this.”
The regulations, expected to go into effect this summer, were designed to maintain the diversity of a marine population that includes mammals, such as otters and whales; crustaceans; such as crabs and abalone; and migrating Coho salmon and steelhead trout.
Options adopted by the commission that have been debated since the August meeting include:
–Allow the current leaseholder to commercially harvest kelp by hand only for the existing leaseholder at Ano Nuevo state marine conservation area until the lease expires.
–Allow fishing for finned fish only at the Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge state marine conservation areas in Monterey Bay.
–Allow recreational hook-and-line fishing and commercial kelp harvest within limits set by the state Department of Fish and Game and Edward Ricketts state marine conservation area off Monterey’s Cannery Row.
–Allow commercial kelp harvesting by hand only for the current leaseholder at White Rock state marine conservation area in Cambria until that lease expires.
The package approved by the commission wasn’t all that fishermen had hoped it would be. Some said ending prawn fishing in Monterey Bay’s Soquel Canyon and Portuguese Ledge would put them out of business. Others have repeatedly protested limits on net fishing and contend that there is no basis for claiming that coastal waters are overfished.
“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported, and science is telling us, that there is no overfishing on the West Coast of California,” said Kathy Fosmark of Pebble Beach, a member of the Federal Fisheries Management Council and co-chairman of the Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries.
Sarah Corbin, California project manager for the Surfrider Foundation, said the commission has “a unique opportunity to protect special habitats” and the plan balances marine life protection with the demands of user groups. It will, she said, “protect a whole host of interdependent species.”
Conservation groups argued against continued kelp harvesting, but Commissioner R. Judd Hanna contended that the state issued harvesting leases that should be honored. Kelp harvester Art Seavey of Monterey Abalone Co. said kelp harvesting is “a sustainable activity” that he needs to provide food for his abalone farm.
Divers and hook-and-line fishermen argued about fishing off the breakwater pier near Cannery Row, one of the state’s most popular dive sites and a popular local line fishing spot.
“Fishing off the breakwater,” said diver John Wolf, “is like shooting squirrels in a city park” because fishhooks hook divers as well as fish.
Commissioner Cindy Gustafson said the Fish and Game Commission shouldn’t have to adjudicate use of a facility owned by the city of Monterey, and suggested the contending parties take that issue to the Monterey City Council.
“We struggled big time in August” to come up with a marine protection plan, said Commissioner Jim Kellogg, “and we ended up unanimous. We’ve heard a lot of testimony since that’s not much unlike what we had for a year and a half.”
The marine protection plan, he said, “is as right as it’s going to get.”
Kellogg said he had fought for fisher’s rights in crafting the regulations and conceded, “some lives will be changed forever because of the decisions we made. It’s not been easy. We’re at the point where fishermen can only fish where there’s no fish.
“Down the road, we’ll have done the right thing.”
The newly established Central Coast marine protected areas are the product of a two-year public process involving nearly 60 public meetings held for stakeholders and scientists, as well as the oversight of a Marine Life Protection Act blue-ribbon task force convened by state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman.
The second round of establishing marine protected areas is already under way for the North Central Coast, covering the coast from Alder Creek in Mendocino County to Pigeon Point.
Fish and Game Department spokesman Steve Martarano said lessons learned in the first round of hearings should shorten the process for the North Central Coast, and that is scheduled for completion next year.
Fish and Game will be responsible for implementing the Marine Life Protection Act regulations, he said, including enforcement, research and monitoring activities. The regulations are scheduled to go into effect this summer after they are filed with the secretary of state.
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@montereyherald.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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