Schwarzenegger's North Central MLPA Closures Begin May 1

Twenty-one marine protected areas (MPAs) - dubbed "Marine Poaching Areas" by many game wardens because of the lack of enforcement staff to patrol new reserves - will take effect May 1, 2010 along California's north central coast.

Schwarzenegger's North Central MLPA Closures Begin May 1

by Dan Bacher

Twenty-one marine protected areas (MPAs) - dubbed "Marine Poaching Areas" by many game wardens because of the lack of enforcement staff to patrol the new reserves - will take effect May 1, 2010 along California's north central coast.

The regulations for the controversial marine reserves between Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County were adopted by the California Fish and Game Commission in August 2009 and approved by the Office of Administrative Law in April 2010.

"The north central coast MPAs were designed through a collaborative public process in which 45 members of a regional stakeholder group worked closely with a science advisory team, a blue ribbon task force, the California Department of Fish and Game, and MLPA Initiative staff and contractors to develop a set of MPA recommendations," according to a joint news release from the Department of Fish and Game and MLPA Initiative.

What the release fails to state is that these closures were adopted last year by the California Fish and Game Commission in spite of massive opposition by a broad coalition of fishermen, conservationists, Indian tribal members, seaweed harvesters and environmental justice advocates.

These regulations will remove members of the Kashaya Pomo Tribe from their traditional seaweed, abalone and mussel harvesting grounds off Stewarts Point, event though they have harvested seafood off this area for centuries. These closures will also remove recreational anglers, commercial fishermen and seaweed harvesters from this area.

The adoption of these regulations without any respect to sovereign tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights points to a bigger issue.

"This issue is larger than the MLPA," said Troy Fletcher, Yurok Tribal member and natural resources consultant who spoke at the Annual Legislative Fisheries Forum at the State Capitol in Sacramento yesterday. "The state of California and tribes need to have a larger summit, initiative or effort to properly define and express the tribal-state relationship."

A series of marine protected areas are now being developed for the North Coast from Alder Creek to the Oregon border, the area north of the zone where the closed areas will go into effect on May 1. The Yurok Tribe is one of 25 tribes that are now attempting to get the State of California to address tribal subsistence and ceremonial rights in the MLPA process.

"As tribal members, our people will continue to conduct ceremonial and subsistence harvesting of seaweed, shellfish and surf fish in a responsible manner as we have always done in the intertidal and coastal zones," he affirmed.

The news release claims, "The new regulations are being implemented as part of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), which requires that California reexamine and redesign its system of MPAs with the goal of increasing its effectiveness at protecting the state's marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems, and marine natural heritage."

In spite of this claim, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's MLPA process, privately funded by the shadowy Resource Legacy Foundation Foundation, has actually taken the "protection" out of the Marine Life Protection Act!

In fact, the original legislation was designed to protect the ocean from pollution, development and other uses that impact the marine ecosystem - not just impose more fishing restrictions. The legislation states very clearly, "Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California's ocean waters."

Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history, has completely taken coastal development, water pollution and other human activities other than fishing and seaweed harvesting "off the table" in his MLPA process. Schwarzenegger has appointed to the Blue Ribbon Task Forces that design the marine protected areas corporate officials from the oil, marine development and real estate industries to make sure that the marine reserves don't conflict with their plans for exploitation and development of the California coast.

Schwarzenegger, an advocate of increased oil drilling off the California coast, very strategically appointed Catherie Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, as chair of the South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast and as a member of the North Central Coast and North Coast MLPA panels. Reheis-Boyd, an oil industry "superstar," is a strong supporter of new oil drilling off the California coast. What type of "protection" is this?

In addition to the 21 MPAs, the new regulations include three state marine recreational management areas (SMRMAs) and six special closures, in total covering approximately 153 square miles (20.1 percent) of state waters in the study region. Approximately 86 square miles (11 percent) are designated as "no take" state marine reserves, while the remaining areas have different take allowances providing varying levels of protection.

Specific details about each MPA, SMRMA and special closure are available at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/.

More information about the north central coast MPAs can be found on the MLPA Web site athttp://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/northcentralhome.asp.