Despite ongoing questions about Native American uses, the final map of new marine protected areas is being saluted as a crowning achievement of cooperation and protection by those who were part of the process, from fishermen to environmentalists to government officials to Native Americans.
“The North Coast region has put its unique stamp on the Marine Life Protection Act and the result is good news for the ocean and a big victory for those of us who live here,” said Bill Lemos, who represented the National Resources Defense Council on the Regional Stakeholders Group (RSG).
Fellow stakeholder Atta Stevenson, a Mendocino County resident who is a member of the California Indian Water Council, praised the teamwork and the ocean protection, while saying Indian issues will need more time and effort.
“We are truly appreciative of the process and countless discussions between tribes, tribal organizations, RSG, the Blue Ribbon Task Force and public individuals with state agency personnel. It is a milestone in the history of California, and it should be celebrated as such, at this point. We look forward to continued partnerships and protection of the integrity of [the] ocean and its inhabitants and tribal rights,” Stevenson said.
On June 29 and 30, the California Fish and Game Commission decided to use the map the RSG developed with only very minor changes. This didn”t happen in any other region. Elsewhere, stakeholders feuded more and submitted competing maps.
Department of Fish and Game staff had recommended changes, but the CFGC went with the local plan over the staff”s suggestions at several points.
“The Fish and Game Commission voted to keep the Ten Mile State Marine Conservation Area the same as proposed by the RSG against the Department of Fish & Game”s recommendations. We should be very pleased about this,” said another former stakeholder, Jim Martin. Martin represented recreational fishing interests on the panel.
Once a final decision is made (expected next spring) the local map, which runs from Mendocino County to the Oregon border, will become part of a statewide linked chain of ocean parks, as envisioned by the Marine Life Protection Act, which was passed by the California Legislature in 1999.
“If approved, that plan will improve management of the ocean while respecting traditional tribal gathering and avoiding local harbors. It”s a testament to all those who worked so hard to find common ground and to [California Resources] Secretary Laird for going the distance,” Lemos said.
In this area, most of the protection will be done on the south side of the Lost Coast. Mendocino County”s new protected areas, ranging from restricted use conservation areas to fishing closed reserves are concentrated in the area from Ten Mile Beach to just past the western tip of Cape Mendocino.
“Commissioners allowed duck hunting in the estuarine MPAs at Navarro, Big River and Ten Mile rivers,” Martin reported. That was not an important issue for stakeholders but has been controversial locally.
Martin noted there were changes made to what the stakeholders did.
“The Commission decided against several recommendations from the local community: the marine reserve north of town will not be named after Skip Wollenberg but [will] be called the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve” as per naming conventions in state law that prohibit naming MPAs after people; the Commission voted to keep several conservation areas established by State Parks and Recreation at Russian Gulch, MacKerricher and Van Damme State Parks even though these MPAs serve no scientific function,” Martin said.
But the heart of the work was kept intact, he said.
“By and large these variations have little bearing on fishing activities. They disallowed surf perch fishing in Big River, which will be an enforcement problem for years to come. They did not allow spearfishing for pelagic finfish in the region”s state marine conservation areas. No boundary lines were changed from what we proposed,” Martin said.
Three dozen regional “stakeholders” representing Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte County environmental, tribal and fishing interests created the map that establishes these closed areas or parks, where fishing uses or closes to fishing uses about 13 percent of the offshore areas of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties. This is a smaller number than in other areas of California, as well as the first time a regional stakeholders group has been willing to agree on a single proposal to recommend.
The new 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 in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
2. Straightening the boundaries of the existing marine reserve at Point Cabrillo. Retaining other small closed areas at three other local parks.
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 four miles north.
4. Another restricted area 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.
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.
The public private initiative is not without its ardent critics. Seaweed gatherer John Lewallen, who was the first person locally to point out questions in the privatized process, which became widely debated in 2010, urges locals to read a lawsuit against the process.
“We support the lawsuit United Anglers of Southern California versus the California Fish and Game Commission, asking court injunction and invalidation of all MPAs already declared on the North Central Coast and South Coast, a lawsuit which details the illegitimate and deceptive MLPAI process which will not be tolerated or respected by Californians www.oceanaccessprotectionfund.org,” Lewallenwrote.
David Gurney, the web blogger-journalist who successfully challenged what ultimately turned out to be illegal MLPAI restrictions on photography and public participation, insists the process is corrupt and will have accomplished much less than it could have.
“The MLPAI, which addresses only throwing non-existent fishing interests off already inaccessible areas the California North Coast, has reached new levels of absurdity, wasted time and misplaced effort. Members of the MLPA staff and their “scientific” advisors have cynically attempted to guarantee themselves jobs in the monitoring of the new closed areas of ocean. The MLPA does nothing to protect the ocean from industrialization or oil drilling,” Gurney said.
Email Frank Hartzell at frankhartzell@gmail.com.
