Eight maps proposing connected marine protected areas in the ocean off Northern California have been submitted by community groups in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.
Mendocino County groups submitted six of those eight plans. A total of 18 groups had expressed an interest in submitting an array, but 10 did not do so by the Feb. 1 deadline.
Those six Mendocino plans include a group from Albion, a proposal from Jim Martin who represents several fishing organizations, one from a Boonville seaweed company, and a Mendocino High School class project proposal.
Perhaps the highest profile proposals come from MOCA, the Mendocino Ocean Community Alliance and Conservation First. Conservation First is composed of persons who attended all the MOCA meetings, then created a proposal to protect more areas of the ocean.
The MOCA proposal, the only one disseminated publicly so far, is also incorporated into a proposal from representatives of all three counties, which had initially been called the Tri-County Working Group. That map of closed areas along the entire coast is identified on the attached graphic as “North Coast Local Interest” array submitted by Adam Wagschal.
Jeanine Pfeiffer, Mendocino County MLPAI Outreach Program facilitator, as well as leader of MOCA, hopes scientific feedback will be provided, as new protected areas could do harm as well as good.
“Our constituents are particularly concerned about the potential for effort shift,” i.e., the potential for newly established marine protected areas to shift harvesting impacts from one area to another, greatly increasing the pressure on marine resources previously subjected to minimal or sustainable harvesting levels,” said Pfeiffer, a college science teacher who led the MOCA effort.
The proposals were not available for comparison immediately, and will be fact-checked by MLPAI staff before being released.
It was unclear if the proposals will be ready for the first meeting of the newly appointed North Coast Regional Stakeholders Group on Monday, Feb. 8 and Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 at the Red Lion Inn, 1929 4th Street in Eureka.
The external arrays are intended solely to provide guidance to the Regional Stakeholders Group.
Annie Reisewitz, a spokeswoman for the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI), promised the external MPA arrays will be accessible to the public. The maps will be available on the program MarineMap, the MLPA Initiative”s online mapping tool, and on the MLPA website as PDF files by Feb. 16.
Although the groups formed to create the arrays will have no official function, Pfeiffer said MOCA will continue to meet monthly and be involved.
“MOCA will continue to gather and disseminate information about the MLPAI and other relevant ocean legislation, and will be organizing science talks, bringing in guest speakers, serving as a communications center for Mendocino County, and as a liaison between the stakeholders group, SAT, Blue Ribbon Task Force and Mendocino County constituents,” she said.
Pfeiffer said more needs to be done by MLPAI organizers to recognize the unique relationship locals have with the ocean and the extent of economic impacts
“We hope that additional scientific consultancy will be provided to assess the array”s potential economic impacts: Not simply up to the dock” (e.g., EcoTrust data), but beyond the dock, as new protected areas will affect our larger business community.
“On the one hand, well-placed protected areas can provide vital protected habitat for native, rare, endangered, and economically important species. On the other hand, a single area could eliminate 80 percent of our crabbing fleet”s fishing grounds; while the placement of a no-take zone within areas historically frequented by thousands of campground (State Park or private) or motel visitors could have a similar impact on our small coastal businesses,” she said.
MarineMap link: http://northcoast.marinemap.org/marinemap/
