The Lost Coast will stay mostly lost and pristine for generations to come if the recommendations of the Regional Stakeholders Group (RSG) are followed.
New “ocean parks” should be concentrated in the area from Ten Mile Beach to the western tip of Cape Mendocino, the RSG has recommended in its final report to the private Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) staff.
The Marine Life Protection Act of 1999 authorized the creation of new offshore parks.
Using four “boards” including the RSG, the private Marine Life Protection Act Initiative has been gathering public input and forging recommendations on what areas of the California Coast to close to fishing, or to restrict fishing uses.
Regional stakeholders representing Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte environmental, tribal and fishing interests created a proposed map. The map suggests new ocean “parks,” where fishing is banned or restricted. The map also suggests closure of about 13 percent of the offshore areas of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, which is a lower percentage than other counties.
This is a smaller number than in other areas of California and the first time a regional stakeholders group has been willing to agree on a single proposal to recommend.
The new RSG proposal, which is only a suggestion, now goes to the master organization of the MLPAI, the Blue Ribbon Task Force, which will compose the local plan into its own recommendations. Then those recommendations will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission, which is scheduled to turn them into law at its December meeting.
However, Assemblyman Wes Chesbro has asked for a six-month delay of the implementation, until funding can be identified for enforcement.
What was recommended?
In recognition of the fact that the coastal economies depend on the ocean for survival, the closed areas were kept away from Albion, Noyo, Eureka and Crescent City harbors.
This reporter attended part of the remotely broadcast meeting, held Aug. 31 in Fortuna but broadcast at the C.V. Starr Center in Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, the video was three minutes behind the audio so guesswork was needed to determine who was speaking.
The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative staff refused to release the final report of the RSG, saying it will take three weeks before they can analyze it for release. So, the best source of what the stakeholders recommended was interviews with stakeholders, the Humboldt Baykeeper website, www.humboldtbaykeeper.org, which offers an enlargeable color keyed map of the areas described below, and the Chris Skyhawk radio show on local public radio station KXYZ, where stakeholder Dave Wright and fishing activist Jim Martin laid out the recommendation in detail.
Those efforts show special protections for local river mouths and estuaries, an innovation for this area.
The map shows:
1. No new closed areas between Point Arena and Ten Mile, north of Fort Bragg. No closed areas around any of the four harbors of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
2. Straightening and slight altering of the boundaries of the existing marine reserve at Point Cabrillo.
3. A large and complicated array that starts at Ten Mile Beach, where recreational and commercial crabbing will still be allowed in the immediate area of the beach. The closed area (state marine reserve) extends three miles out (limit of state waters) and about 4 miles north.
4. Another restricted area (state marine conservation area) that starts in an area of private property off Rockport Beach, (the area where Highway 1 turns inland and the “Lost Coast” starts.) That new restricted area goes north to a mile or so south of Usal Beach. Some commercial and recreational crabbing and salmon fishing will still be allowed offshore.
5. Dismantling the long time marine reserve at Punta Gorda. Four other closed areas will be created along Cape Mendocino, in the areas of Spanish Flat, Big Flat, Mattole Canyon and the very tip of Cape Mendocino, called Steamboat Springs.
6. Very few closures north of the tip of Cape Mendocino, partly in recognition of the heavy usage by Native Americans, as one travels farther north.
7. There will be new restricted areas at Somoa, Reading Rock and the Oregon-California border.
Most of the new closed areas currently get very little use; some are virtually inaccessible. But the entire North Coast region, even the cities, is inaccessible compared to Southern California oceanfront.
Was the report of the North Coast Regional Stakeholders Group final? The group has no more scheduled meetings and has been disbanded but apparently the MLPAI staff is still working with members of the group in private.
“The stakeholders are still working to include information associated with each MPA. The proposal will need to be reviewed one more time by the stakeholders to ensure the information is correct before we post on the website,” said Annie Reisewitz, MLPAI spokeswoman.
However, the public understanding had been that the RSG”s work was done as of Sept. 1.
Immediate release would be required under state law if the report were indeed final and the group”s work finished — as several stakeholders have said publicly. But since stakeholders do meet officially with the Blue Ribbon Task Force to present their proposal, the stakeholders group is not dissolved, MLPAI staff says.
“Currently, MLPA Initiative staff is working with the NCRSG to review the MPA proposal to confirm it accurately reflects the NCRSG”s decisions; the NCRSG is also busy developing supporting documents to describe the rationale behind the approach to develop its single MPA proposal,” Reisewitz said.
“The proposal and supporting materials will be posted on the MLPA website and MarineMap by Thursday, Sept. 16 for public review and comment; a message will be shared via the MLPA Initiative listserv when it is available.
“Between now and then, I encourage anyone eager to view the NCRSG”s recommendations to watch the archived webcast www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/meetings_n.asp.”
Reisewitz praised the work of the Regional Stakeholders Group as unprecedented.
“Collectively the NCRSG members have worked together to achieve this goal in honor of their former colleague, Skip Wollenberg, who passed away in August and supported a unified, community-based proposal,” she said.
Wollenberg was at times critical of the process.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fortuna will take place on Oct. 25-27, when the NCRSG will present its single proposal.
