In a victory for opponents of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and champions of open and democratic process in California, the Office of Administrative Law on September 2 disapproved the so-called "marine protected areas" (MPAs) for the Southern California coast that were originally slated to go into effect on October 1, 2011.
The California Fish and Game Commission announced that it will discuss "alternative effective dates" for implementation of the marine protected areas at its September 15 meeting in Redding. The Commission delayed the implementation of the fishing closures after OAL informed the Commission that it had additional questions and requests for more information that will require a re-notice of the regulations.
OAL disapproved the regulatory action for the following reasons:
• failure to comply with notice requirements for modification of the regulatory text;
• failure to comply with the 'Necessity' standard of Government Code section 11349;
• failure to include all relied upon documents in the rulemaking file;
• failure to provide the reasons for rejecting alternatives that were considered; and
• failure to adequately respond to all of the public comments made regarding the proposed action.
The 9-page ruling details how each of these areas of state law were violated in the rush by the Commission and MLPA Initiative officials to create "marine protected areas" in a process chaired by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA). George G. Shaw, Senior Staff Council, and Debra N. Cornex, Assistant Chief Counsel Acting Director, for the Office of Administrative Law signed the document.
The ruling emphasizes that the Fish and Game Commission is not exempt from the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act, regardless of what Commissioners may think.
"The amendment of regulations by the Commission must satisfy requirements established by the part of the APA that governs rulemaking by a state agency," according to the ruling. "Any rule or regulation adopted by a state agency to implement, interpret, or make specific the law enforced or administered by it, or to govern its procedure, is subject to the APA unless a statute expressly exempts the regulation from APA compliance (Gov. Code, sec. 11346). No statute exempts the Commission's rulemaking from APA compliance."
The MLPA Initiative, strongly criticized by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes, human rights activists and civil liberties advocates, has violated an array of state, federal and international laws since the process was privately funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation in 2004.
The request for "Commission guidance" on the effective date of South Coast marine protected areas, due to the OAL decision, is listed as item 12 on the Commission meeting on September 15.
Lawsuit challenges North Central Coast and South Coast regulations
A pending lawsuit filed by members of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), a coalition representing the interests of California's recreational anglers and boaters in the MLPA process, adds further uncertainty to when, if ever, the South Coast regulations will go into effect.
The lawsuit seeks to set aside the MLPA regulations for the North Central and South Coast study regions, citing a "lack of statutory authority" for the Fish and Game Commission to adopt the regulations. In the case of the South Coast regulations, the litigation cites numerous violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the Commission's environmental review of the regulations.
A hearing on the North Central Coast portion of the case has been set for September 26, 2011 in San Diego. The controversial North Central Coast marine protected areas have been in place since May 1, 2010.
"I'm very pleased that OAL has seen many of the same flaws that we've been seeing alll along in this process," said Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "I don't know what the length of the delay will be, but we're hearing from informed sources that the implementation of South Coast marine protected ares will be delayed until January 1, 2012."
He added that the outcome of their litigation could determine whether or not the fishing closures will ever go into effect.
"It is clear to us that these regulations are the result of a flawed process and should be overturned," said David Elm, chairman of United Anglers of Southern California (UASC), also a plaintiff. "I urge all anglers, and anyone who supports public access to public resources, to join our fight against the MLPA process in the courts by visitinghttp://www.OceanAccessProtectionFund.org and making a donation today."
Over the past year, recreational fishing groups have scored three court victories in a row against the MLPA Initiative. In June, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled that two NGOs, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Ocean Conservancy, had no legal right to intervene in the lawsuit by Fletcher, UASC and the Coastside Fishing Club.
Grassroots environmental leaders, including John Lewallen, the co-founder of the Ocean Protection Coalition and the North Coast Seaweed Rebellion, strongly support the litigation against the MLPA Initiative.
"A California Superior Court lawsuit challenging the authority of the state to let the private Resources Legacy Fund Foundation operate a process of setting up Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in violation of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, the Coastal Act, and other state laws deserves the support of all Californians," said Lewallen.
The three court victories and the OAL decision prove that claims by MLPA Initiative officials and advocates that the process has been "open, transparent and inclusive" are without any basis in fact.
Commission still refuses to acknowledge tribal gathering rights
The privately funded MLPA process to create so-called "marine protected areas," in a classic example of institutional racism and elitism, completely excluded tribal scientists from the MLPA Science Advisory Team. Nor did state officials appointed any tribal representatives on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force until 2010, six years after the privatized process began in 2004 under the direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, one was finally appointed.
To date, the California Fish and Game Commission has refused to acknowledge tribal gathering rights on the California coast under the MLPA Initiative, a process overseen by a big oil lobbyist, agribusiness hack, real estate executive, coastal developer and other corporate operatives.
"Any attempt to institutionally diminish our right to gather coastal resources is essentially an act of ethnic cleansing," Yurok Tribal Chairman Thomas O'Rourke said in a news release on June 27. "We depend on these traditions to carry on our culture for the rest of time."
Under "Option 1" of the preferred alternative for North Coast marine protected areas that the Fish and Game Commission accepted during the June 29 meeting, tribal members sixteen or older would have to show, on the request of a game warden, a state recreational fishing license in addition to a federally recognized Tribal ID - and be limited by state regulations.
The Yurok Tribe said this decision "failed to protect traditional gathering rights."
"I cannot accept the part about the fishing license," said O'Rourke. "The Fish and Game has taken an unjust and patronizing step. No one can separate these resources from our culture."
Tribal proposals for marine protected areas on the North coast will be discussed at the Commission meeting on Thursday, September 15. The discussion is listed as item 4 on the agenda. The meeting will start at 8:30 a.m. at the Red Lion Hotel, Sierra Room, 11830 Hilltop Drive, Redding (http://www.fgc.ca.gov).
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA "Initiative" to "implement" the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The "marine protected areas" created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of "marine protected areas" included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast and a member of the task forces for the North Central Coast and North Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public "partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Members of the Yurok Tribe and other tribes will gather on the North Coast beaches Saturday, June 18 in protest of new coastal closures in "marine protected areas" proposed under the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
"Armed with only tribal identification cards, Native Americans from Tolowa Country to the Wiyot Nation will be assembling on culturally critical beaches Saturday to harvest marine resources," according to a press release from the Yurok Tribe, California's largest Indian Tribe.
There will be tribal members at Patrick's Point State Park at 5:30 a.m., Clam Beach at 7:30 a.m. and Wilson Creek Beach near Klamath at 8:30 a.m. Tribal members are being encouraged to gather at their favorite spot.
Representatives of the Yurok Tribe and other tribes have met with John Laird, Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, regarding tribal gathering under the MLPA Initiative, but the state has to date failed to address tribal fishing and gathering rights.
"We don't perceive traditional tribal gathering of ocean resources to be some kind of delinquent activity, but the state and feds do," said Yurok Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer, Bob McConnell. "We harvest from the ocean for our ceremonies and physical health. It is time to decriminalize our culture."
"The Tribe's rights are nonnegotiable," emphasized Yurok Chairman Thomas O'Rourke Sr. "As long as we are here, we will continue to gather in culturally appropriate way that is beneficial to all species."
The tribe said state parks and national marine reserves and parks do "disproportionate and unjustifiable harm" to California's indigenous people who need access to marine resources in order to perpetuate complex spiritual practices and life ways.
"Our methods of take enhance these resources rather than harm them. We offer as evidence the abundance of coastal resources prior to European contact," McConnell said. "Prayer is an integral part of the process as no life can be taken without acknowledgement of that life. We thank the creator and the plant/animal for that life each and every time we gather a resource."
The tribe noted that decades have passed and public perceptions about Native Americans have changed since most of the rules that govern California's coast were signed into law.
"These government bodies have made criminals out of people for embracing their culture. We want the people of California to know that and join us in the process of reversing it," McConnell concluded.
For more information, contact: Matt Mais, Yurok Tribe, (707) 482-1350 ext. 306, (707)954-0976, www.yuroktribe.org.
The California Fish & Game Commission (CFGC) will meet in Stockton on June 29-30 to discuss and adopt the amended "unified" proposal for marine protected areas on the North Coast. For more details on the amended plan, please read Frank Hartzell's article, http://www.mendocinobeacon.com...
MLPA Initiative Background:
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA "Initiative" to "implement" the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The "marine protected areas" created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of "marine protected areas" included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public "partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
MLPA and state officials refused to appoint any tribal scientists to the MLPA Science Advisory Team (SAT), in spite of the fact that the Yurok Tribe alone has a Natural Resources Department with over 70 staff members, including many scientists. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force also didn't include any tribal representatives until 2010 when one was finally appointed to the panel.
"Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is it systematically decimates our ability to be who we are," stated Frankie Joe Myers, a Yurok tribal citizen and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition on July 21, 2010, during a historic direct protest against the MLPA's violation of tribal rights in Fort Bragg. "That is the definition of cultural genocide."
"It is our sovereign and sacred right to harvest coastal resources according to our customs," said Hoopa Tribal Citizen Dania Rose Colegrove, an organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition. "We will no longer allow the state or the feds to criminalize our culture."
Armed with only tribal identification cards, Native Americans from Tolowa Country to the Wiyot Nation will be assembling on culturally critical beaches Saturday to harvest marine resources, according to a news release from the Yurok Tribe.
For Immediate Release: July 16, 2011
Contact: Matt Mais, Yurok Tribe
(707) 482-1350 ext. 306
(707)954-0976
Tribes express coastal gathering rights in ancestral territory
Tribal members will meet at several locations on Saturday to practice traditional harvest
Armed with only tribal identification cards, Native Americans from Tolowa Country to the Wiyot Nation will be assembling on culturally critical beaches Saturday to harvest marine resources.
"We don't perceive traditional tribal gathering of ocean resources to be some kind of delinquent activity, but the state and feds do," said Yurok Tribal Heritage Preservation Officer, Bob McConnell. "We harvest from the ocean for our ceremonies and physical health. It is time to decriminalize our culture."
"The Tribe's rights are nonnegotiable," added Yurok Chairman Thomas O'Rourke Sr. "As long as we are here, we will continue to gather in culturally appropriate way that is beneficial to all species."
State parks and national marine reserves and parks do disproportionate and unjustifiable harm to California's indigenous people who need access to marine resources in order to perpetuate complex spiritual practices and life ways.
"Our methods of take enhance these resources rather than harm them. We offer as evidence the abundance of coastal resources prior to European contact," McConnell said. "Prayer is an integral part of the process as no life can be taken without acknowledgement of that life. We thank the creator and the plant/animal for that life each and every time we gather a resource."
Decades have passed and public perceptions about Native Americans have changed since most of the rules that govern California's coast were signed into law.
"These government bodies have made criminals out of people for embracing their culture. We want the people of California to know that and join us in the process of reversing it," McConnell concluded.
Tribal members are encouraged to gather at their favorite spot. There will be tribal members at Patrick's Point State Park at 5:30 a.m., Clam Beach at 7:30 a.m. and Wilson Creek Beach near Klamath at 8:30 a.m.
Warner Chabot, in his article in the California Progress Report on March 16, affirms that we have "a responsibility to ensure" that the ocean "is managed sustainably and responsibly."
Just about everybody can agree that we need to manage the ocean "sustainably and responsibly." Where the disagreement comes is the type and scope of protection that will be provided. The essential problem is that the MLPA Initiative doesn't provide the comprehensive, holistic protection that is now needed to preserve marine ecosystems.
Chabot, the CEO of the California League of Conservation Voters, and other MLPA Initiative proponents falsely portray representatives of fishing groups and other critics of the process as "opponents of ocean protection" and proponents of "overfishing."
Nothing could be further from the truth. Recreational fishing groups that I have worked with led the charge to restrict gillnetting, trammel netting, longlining and other fishing methods along the coast to protect rockfish, halibut and other species, as well as working with Tribes, environmentalists and commercial fishermen to restore salmon and Delta fish populations.
In fact, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), including federal and state officials, Indian Tribal representatives and recreational and commercial group representatives, voted over a decade ago to create one of the largest marine protected areas in the world stretching the entire length of the continental shelf of California from Oregon to Mexico. This giant marine protected area (MPA), the Rockfish Conservation Zone, was designed to rebuild deep water rockfish stocks, yet its existence been hasn't ever been factored into the MLPA process.
The Council has also imposed very strict regulations on fishing seasons, bag limits and others for rockfish and other species.
A groundbreaking study published in the July 31, 2009 issue of Science magazine revealed that the California Current ecosystem has the lowest fishery exploitation rate of any place in the world examined by co-authors Ray Hilborn and Boris Worm and 19 other scientists.
"The drastic reductions in harvest in California have been designed to rebuild the overexploited rockfish stocks," said Hilborn. "At present the community of groundfish is now at about 60% of its unfished biomass, far above the 30-40% level target for maximum sustained yield."
Dr. Hilborn, a professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, added, "Much of the motivation for the MLPA was concern about the state of the groundfish stocks - there is clear evidence that these can be rebuilt without MPAs resulting from the MLPA that have only recently begun to be implemented."
Comprehensive Protection Is Needed
While problems with overfishing have been largely addressed due to the impositions of strict regulations and the creation of the Rockfish Conservation Zone, California ocean and bay waters are beset with an array of problems - water pollution, particularly from unregulated agricultural users and storm runoff, water diversions from coastal and Central Valley rivers, and water exports out of the Delta to southern California and corporate agribusiness.
The initiative's "marine protected areas" don't protect the ocean waters from any of these problems, as well as threats posed by oil spills and drilling, wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture, coastal development, habitat destruction and other human impacts other than fishing and gathering. That's bad public policy, especially when oil industry, marina development and real estate interests with numerous conflicts of interest are on the panels overseeing the implementation of the law.
The first two goals of the MLPA mandate that we "protect the natural diversity and abundance of marine life, and the structure, function, and integrity of marine ecosystems" and "help sustain, conserve, and protect marine life populations, including those of economic value, and rebuild those that are depleted."
The MLPA Initiative is at odds with the letter and intent of the actual Marine Life Protection Act, which was designed to provide comprehensive protection to "help sustain, conserve, and protect marine life populations," not the questionable "protection" provided under the implementation of the law under Schwarzenegger.
For example, environmental leader Robert Ovetz was very critical of how the North Central Coast marine protected areas failed to include strong protections for fish, birds, sea mammals and other marine life from oil tankers entering San Francisco Bay.
"The Cosco Busan tragedy has yet to teach many of those planning the new MPA network a lesson," said Ovetz, in April 2008, as the North Central MLPA process was underway. "How well will these crown jewels of our new MPA network be protected from the 732 potential Exxon Valdez oil tankers entering the Bay every year with an estimated 400 million gallons of fuel in their holds?"
MPAs: Marine Poaching Areas
In addition to failing to comprehensively protect fish and other species, there is still no solution in sight for enforcing the new marine protected areas, making these zones into virtual "paper" marine reserves. This is a global problem, as David McGuire, currently with a team of Costa Rican biologists from the environmental organization Pretoma on the vessel Sirneuse to film and tag turtles and sharks at Cocos Island, points out.
"The problem in any case is observance and enforcement," he said. "There have been success in countries with resources to enforce and convict violators, but many of the areas on the global map are in name only - 'paper parks.' Boats fish freely in world heritage sites and areas designated protected by governments. I am writing this from one such area outside Cocos Island approximately 400 miles off the coast of Costa Rica."
Unfortunately, California is one such area where the government, in its greatest economic crisis ever, simply doesn't have the funds to enforce new MPAs. The California Game Wardens Association has opposed the creation of any new marine protected areas along the coast until the state acquires the necessary funds to enforce them.
In an an excellent opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee on January 31, 2010 Jerry Karnow, Legislative Liason for the California Fish and Game Wardens Association, criticized the MLPA process for proceeding forward at a time when California has the "lowest ratio of wardens to population of any state or province in North America.
"It is impossible for the warden force to effectively enforce existing regulations, much less new regulations that the Fish and Game Commission approves over our objections," says Karnow. "Many of the regulations approved by the commission will not protect the natural resources of California. They will serve only one purpose; they will stretch the warden force ever thinner, which will eventually result in another warden's on-duty injury or death."
"While it seeks to design Marine Protected Areas, my warden colleagues have a different meaning for 'MPA' - we call them Marine Poaching Areas," says Karnow. "Since the protection act closes productive fishing areas, poachers will know where to rape our resources, and they will know that there is unlikely to be any law enforcement presence or legal anglers present to turn in poachers."
Shouldn't initiative proponents listen to the advice of California's game wardens, since they're the ones charged with enforcing the MLPA?
Initiative Advocates Refuse to Address Flaws
MLPA Initiative advocates constantly refuse to address the questions that myself and others have posed regarding the many flaws in the MLPA process, led by failure of the initiative to provide comprehensive marine protection. They pretend these flaws don't exist, preferring to repeat generic statements that the MLPA process is "open, transparent and inclusive" when 25 pages of documents of secret, illegal meetings and hour after hour of testimony of fishermen, Tribal members and grassroots environmentalists prove that it isn't.
When will MLPA Initiative backers finally show some courage to admit that there are serious flaws in the process?
When will they face up to the fact that Schwarzenegger's appointment of a big oil lobbyist to be chair of the South Coast Task Force and to serve on the North Coast and North Central Coast panels was wrong?
When will they acknowledge that refusing to appoint tribal scientists to the Science Advisory Team and not appointing any tribal representatives to the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force until 2010 Coast is really bad policy?
Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribe member and Coastal Justice Coalition activist, exposed the refusal to incorporate tribal science that underlies the "science" of the MLPA process during a direct action protest by a coalition of 50-plus tribes and their allies in Fort Bragg, California, on July 21, 2010.
"The whole process is inherently flawed by institutionalized racism," Myers said. "It doesn't recognize tribes as political entities, or tribal biologists as legitimate scientists."
Hopefully, Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird will show some courage, break with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's abysmal environmental ocean policies and instead work to implement comprehensive policies along the California coast that protect the marine ecosystem from water pollution, water diversions, oil spills, corporate aquaculture, military testing, wave energy projects and other human impacts, rather than just penalizing fishermen and gatherers.
Click here to read the 10 questions that MLPA advocates refuse to answer.
Resistance to fake marine 'protection" builds from Diego Garcia to California
by Dan Bacher
Throughout the world, opposition is building to fake marine "protected" areas designed to fulfill the agenda of corporate globalization and the privatization of public trust resources.
The rights of indigenous people and fishing families are rarely considered in the creation of these unjust no fishing and gathering zones, whether they are installed in the Chagos Islands by the United Kingdom, the Sea of Cortez by the Mexican government, or along the California coast under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
The African Union recently backed Mauritius against the United Kingdom in the dispute over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Secret cables between US and British governments released to the UK Guardian by Wikileaks disclosed how the so-called marine protected area supported by Greenpeace and other corporate environmental groups were installed to deny the native Chagossians the right of return and to allow alleged CIA renditioning of "terror" suspects on the US military base at Diego Garcia.
The Assembly of the Union, at its 16th Ordinary Session held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 30 to 31 January 2011, passed a resolution to "support fully the action of the Government of the Republic of Mauritius at the United Nations General Assembly with a view to enabling Mauritius to exercise its sovereignty over the Archipelago."
The resolution notes with "grave concern that notwithstanding the OAU/AU Resolution/Decisions and the strong opposition expressed by the Republic of Mauritius, the United Kingdom has proceeded to establish a 'marine protected area' around the Chagos Archipelago on 01 November 2010, in a manner that was inconsistent with its international legal obligations, thereby further impeding the exercise by the Republic of Mauritius of its sovereignty over the Archipelago."
Mauritius on December 20, 2010 initiated proceedings against the United Kingdom concerning the legality of the purported "marine protected area" under Article 287 and Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"Mauritius is also committed to taking other measures to protect its rights under international law relating to its legitimate aspiration to be able to exercise sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including action at the United Nations General Assembly," the resolution noted.
According to Wikileaks cables sent from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to the U.S. Embassy, setting up the marine reserve effectively "stymied the return of the former islanders." (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/12/08/18666039.php)
Marine reserve area used as rendition site for 'terror' suspects
"We do not regret the removal of the population," FCO Commissioner Colin Roberts wrote to his U.S. counterpart in May 2009, "since removal was necessary for the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) to fulfill its 'strategic purpose.' "
He continues, "Establishing a marine reserve might, indeed, be the most effective long-term way to prevent any of the Chagos Islands' former inhabitants or their descendants from resettling in the BIOT."
Elements of the British government seem to have been less concerned with protecting marine life than with protecting the U.K.'s relationship with the U.S. "The CIA has allegedly used Diego Garcia as a 'black site' for deposing terror suspects," according to reporter John Bowermaster (http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/12/14/the-politics-behind-the-worlds-largest-marine-reserve-wikileaks).
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued an embarrassing apology to members of Parliament in February 2008. Despite "earlier explicit assurances" to the contrary, he admitted that two planes carrying prisoners of the U.S. "war on terror" had landed on the British-owned island of Diego Garcia in 2002 before flying to foreign territory as part of the "American extraordinary rendition program." (http://www.alternet.org/rights/79273).
The marine reserve, the largest in the world, was pushed through by the U.K. government, the Obama administration and nine prominent environmental NGOS, ranging from the Pew Charitable Trust to Greenpeace, in spite of outrage by the Chagossians and human rights groups throughout the world.
"The fish have more rights than us," said Roch Evenor, secretary of the U.K. Chagos Support Association, who left the islands when he was 4 years old.
The MLPA Initiative is not open or inclusive
In California, fishermen, environmentalists and Indian Tribes are pitted against Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) officials and corporate environmental NGO representatives who are imposing fake marine protected areas along the coast from the Oregon border to the U.S./Mexico border. Ironically, Leon Panetta, the current CIA Director, has been one of the strongest and outspoken supporters of the MLPA Initiative.
Panetta, then a leader of the Join Oceans Commission, praised the MLPA for being "an inclusive, regional public process that involves sport and commercial fishermen, marine scientists, conservationists, divers, kayakers and educators" in an opinion piece in the San Jose Mercury News on August 30, 2008. However, far from being "inclusive," the widely contested initiative excluded tribal scientists from the Science Advisory Panels and failed to appoint any tribal representatives to the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces until 2010!
Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal member and Coastal Justice Coalition activist, exposed the institutional racism and refusal to incorporate Tribal science that underlies the fake "science" of the MLPA process during a direct action protest by a coalition of over 50 Tribes and their allies in Fort Bragg, California on July 21, 2010.
"The MLPA process completely disregards tribal gathering rights and only permits discussion of commercial and recreational harvest," Myers emphasized. "The whole process is inherently flawed by institutionalized racism. It doesn't recognize Tribes as political entities, or Tribal biologists as legitimate scientists."
The MLPA Initiative, overseen by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate operatives, does nothing to protect ocean waters from water pollution, oil drilling and spills, corporate aquaculture, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and all other human impacts on the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, funds the unpopular initiative. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Hewlitt-Packard) has contributed $8.2 million to fund MLPA hearings through the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, while the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Intel) has donated $7.4 million to the widely-contested process. The Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation, founded by Getty Oil heiress Anne Getty Earhart, gave another $3 million.
The Keith Campbell Foundation's contributed $1.2 million to the MLPA Initiative through the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. Finally, the Annenberg Foundation contributed $200,000 ( (http://www.lbindy.com/2011/02/11/marine-hearings-buoyed-by-nonprofits/).
Zapatistas fight for indigenous fishing rights
Likewise, the Cucapa Tribe of Baja California organized a Zapatista Peace Camp with subcomandante marcos and the Mayan comandantes from February to May 2007 to support their right to fish for corvina and other fish in a federal marine reserve, "the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California," in the Colorado River Delta (http://www.counterpunch.org/bacher04212007.html). Indigenous activists from throughout the U.S. and Latin America successfully defended the tribal members against harrassment by the right wing Mexican government.
Subcomandante Marcos and 10 comandantes from Chiapas, en route to the Cucapa Camp that April, were welcomed by the O'odham Tribe and friends in the state of Sonora.
"The Cucapa are doing the same thing they have been doing for 9,000 years," said Marcos. "The Cucapa and other Indian people called for this camp in defense of nature so they can fish without detentions or being put in jail."
The marine reserve, rather than addressing the massive water diversions of water that led to fish declines in the Sea of Cortez and the reduction of the Colorado river at its mouth to a dry bed or trickle, penalizes the greatest defenders of the river and its ecosystem, the Cucapa. The greenwashing that occurs by the imposition of the reserve parallels the corrupt MLPA process that does nothing to address the exports of Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Water, water pollution, habitat degradation and other factors that have led to Central Valley salmon and Bay-Delta Estuary fish declines in recent years.
From the Chagos Islands, to the Northern California Coast, to the Colorado River Delta in Mexico, people are now resisting and will continue to resist so-called marine protected areas that are being installed not to "protect" the ocean, but to deny basic human rights and to privatize the oceans.
George Osborn, spokesman for the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), presented a 25 page document documenting illegal private, non-public meetings of Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative officials to the California Fish and Game Commission during its meeting on February 2 in Sacramento.
The PSO, a coalition of national and regional fishing organizations including the Coastside Fishing Club and United Anglers of Southern California, filed suit in San Diego Superior Court in late January, seeking to overturn South Coast and North Central Coast MLPA closures, alleging violations of the State Administrative Procedure Act.
During his brief public testimony, Osborn exposed the corruption and violations of law by the MLPA's Blue Ribbon Task Force (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7_04BC1acA).
"After reviewing the documents turned over to us, which previously the BRTF had improperly withheld from the public, we now have evidence, indicating that the public meetings of the BRTF have been an elaborately staged Kabuki performance, choreographed and rehearsed down to the last detail, even to the crafting of motions, in scheduled private meeting held before the so-called public meetings of the BRTF," said Osborn. "Clearly, this has not been the most open and transparent process, as it has so often been described."
"The BRTF's behavior taints the regulations that are the end product of its work, and these regulations must be reversed," he emphasized. "The PSO respectfully requests that the Commission begin the process to un-do these wrongs committed against California's recreational anglers and as all Californians, see that the MLPA is implemented properly, and reverse actions that unnecessarily close areas to fishing."
"Let's work with Governor Brown and direct California's meager resources to solve real problems that harm the ocean we love," he concluded.
Commissioner Dan Richards asked Osborn for proof about the secret meetings that PSO has accused the privately funded MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force of conducting.
Osborn then submitted to the Commissioners the copies of emails and correspondence by MLPA officials documenting private, non-public meetings. Secret meetings of the Blue Ribbon Task Force were held in April 2007 and on November 3, 2008, December 10, 2008, February 25, 2009, October 20, 21 and 22, 2009.
The documents included correspondence by Ken Wiseman, MLPA executive director, Don Benninghoven, former Fish and Game Commissoner, Melissa Miller-Henson, program manager of the MLPA Initiative, Meg Caldwell, BRTF member and others.
The documents also include the email by Fort Bragg City Council member Jere Melo on November 5, 2009, regarding his resignation from the MLPA Statewide Interest Group (SIG) for its failure to obey state laws.
"I cannot continue on a body that advertises its functions as 'public' and then provides very little or no public notice of its meetings," said Melo. "There is a real ethics question for a person who holds a public office."
The February 2 meeting was a joint hearing of the Fish and Game Commission and the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the North Coast. The Commission adopted a unified proposal crafted by recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists and business owners that would create marine protected areas in approximately 13 percent of the North Coast state's waters - and for the first time acknowledged tribal gathering rights on the ocean.
The Yurok and other North Coast Tribes did not endorse the proposal, but accepted it, providing that the state formally acknowledges the sovereign rights of Tribes to gather along the coast as they have done from thousands of years.
"There is no evidence that tribes have had a negative impact upon the ecosystem," said Thomas O'Rourke, Chair of the Yurok Tribal Council "They have been part of the ecosystem since time immemorial. Science needs to recognize people as part of the ecosystem. If you don't include people, the proposal will fail. Our rights are not negotiable."
He emphasized, "The Tribe doesn't endorse the unified proposal, but it accepts the proposal."
"Nothing is final until it's final," O'Rourke said after the meeting, in responding to the Commission's decision to move the unified proposal forward. "We are as comfortable as we can be in this stage of the process."
In reference to the lawsuit filed by PSO, O'Rourke stated, "if the state doesn't listen to us and tries to impose regulations on the Tribes, the fishermen's lawsuit is possibly one of many they will have to deal with."
The Commission also heard from supporters of Option Zero, who felt shortchanged because they were only given one minute each to comment at the end of the public comment period. This was done in spite of a letter from Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro and Senator Noreen Evans urging the Commission to "allow for a briefing from Option Zero supporters."
Option Zero proponents, including environmentalists, recreational anglers, and commercial fishermen, support managing fisheries on the North Coast through existing regulations - and criticize the MLPA process for setting up marine protected areas that fail to protect the ocean from water pollution, oil spills and drilling, military testing, wave energy projects and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
MLPA critics also slam the process for its many conflicts of interest, including the domination of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served on both the North Central Coast and North Coast task forces and chaired the South coast task force.
The MLPA process was privatized in 2004 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation that North Coast environmental leader John Stephens-Lewallen described as a "money laundering operation for corporations," to fund the controversial process through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Fish and Game.
Since then, the MLPA Initiative has violated numerous state, federal and international laws, including the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, the California Public Records Act, the State Administrative Procedure Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
To see the entire 25-page set of BRTF private meeting documents, go to the San Diego Freedivers website: http://www.sandiegofreedivers....
Three North Coast legislators have requested the California Fish and Game Commission to provide sufficient time for them, Tribes and fishermen to provide testimony during the Commission's upcoming hearing in Sacramento regarding the implementation of the North Coast phase of the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata), Chair of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture and Senators Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) and Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), also members of the Committee, made the request in a letter to Jim Kellogg, President of the California Fish and Game Commission, on January 25.
The Commission will hold the special hearing in conjunction with the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to receive recommendations regarding marine protected areas proposed for the North Coast on Wednesday, February 2, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Resources Building Auditorium, 1416 Ninth Street, First Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.
"As you are aware, the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture held a hearing on the North MLPA on January 21 in Eureka, California," Chesbro, Evans and LaMalfa wrote. "We want to share with the Commission what we heard from our constituents and stakeholders."
The Legislators also asked the Commission to allocate time for representatives of North Coast Indian Tribes, as well from the regional stakeholders from the fishing, environmental and business communities, to speak before the Commission regarding their concerns regarding the MLPA process.
"The Committee heard compelling testimony from North Coast Tribes that were unified in their concerns to protect their inherent rights to traditionally gather along the North Coast shoreline," they stated. "We ask for the Commission to respect Tribal interests and provide for adequate testimony from the Tribal perspective. We encourage you to work with the Tribes to develop a workable format for their full participation at your hearing by providing a block of time for tribal testimony."
During the hearing, Thomas O'Rourke, chair of the Yurok Tribal Council, stated, "This act infringes on our rights. We will not surrender this right. Our rights are not negotiable."
Chesbro, Evans and LaMalfa requested a block of time of the Regional Stakeholder Group (RSG) to provide group input during a "brief presentation." The RSG members, for the first time in the history of the contentious MLPA process adopted a unified proposal, rather than different proposals as was done in the Central Coast, North Coast and Central Coast MLPA processes.
"Additionally, we urge you to allow for a briefing from Option Zero supporters," the letter concludes.
Supporters of Option Zero support managing fisheries on the Coast through existing regulations - and criticize the MLPA process for setting up marine protected areas that fail to protect the ocean from water pollution, oil spills and drilling, military testing, wave energy projects and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
MLPA critics also slam the process for its many conflicts of interest, including the domination of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served on both the North Central Coast and North Coast task forces and chaired the South coast task force.
As required by Administrative Procedures Act, the Commission will hold three hearings on the North Coast marine protected areas prior to adoption. They hope to hold at least one hearing on the North Coast.
At the February 3 meeting the Commission will adopt their calendar for the year - and it is likely a North Coast meeting will be scheduled for fall 2011, according to Chesbro's office.
The Commission will base public testimony time as per their guidelines on the agenda. It will be determined based on the number of people that desire to testify and the amount of time available.
Generally, the Commission allows members of the legislature to speak first. Other elected officials speak next and are often provided 3-5 minutes. Public testimony follows.
The complete coverage of the January 21 hearing, chaired by Assemblymember Chesbro, is available on-demand on Access Humboldt's Community Media Archive: http://www.archive.org/details... In addition, an audio file of the hearing is also posted online: http://ia700409.us.archive.org...
To read the Inter-Tribal Water Commission's Position Paper on the MLPA presented during the hearing, go to: http://www.itwatercommission.org.
Anglers Launch Lawsuit Against Illegal Marine Closures
In other breaking MLPA news, member organizations of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), a coalition representing California's recreational fishing and boating community, have filed a lawsuit in the San Diego County Superior Court seeking to set aside regulations established by the California Fish and Game Commission in connection with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
The commission approved regulations for the North Central and South Coast study regions in August 2009 and December 2010, respectively, establishing marine protected areas - essentially no-fishing zones - in large areas of the state's coastal waters.
The lawsuit, filed by United Anglers of Southern California, Coastside Fishing Club and Robert C. Fletcher, cites a lack of statutory authority for adopting the regulations, and, in the case of the South Coast regulations, numerous violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the commission's environmental review of the regulations, according to a news release from the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans.
"From the outset, it was clear that the MLPA process was set up to reach a predetermined outcome under the fiction of an allegedly open and transparent process," said Bob Fletcher, former president of the Sportfishing Association of California. "In a rush to establish regulations based on political timelines and a pre-determined agenda, the Fish and Game Commission has ignored the legal requirements it must follow."
Most notably, the petition states that:
• The commission does not have the statutory authority to adopt, modify or delete marine protected areas under the MLPA's main rulemaking provisions until it has approved a final Master Plan for the state. The final Master Plan has yet to be written or approved.
• The other statutory authorities that the commission relies on do not provide the commission with the authority it needs to adopt these MPAs.
• The privately-funded "MLPA Initiative" process has been conducted in a manner inconsistent with the process the state legislature directed in the MLPA, and meetings held by MLPA planning groups that should have been open meetings were closed to the public. The shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, funds the implementation of so-called marine protected areas through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the California Department of Fish and Game.
• The South Coast study region regulations were adopted on the basis of an environmental review process that is in violation of CEQA.
"Our concerns were presented to the commission prior to its December 2010 vote to approve regulations for the South Coast," Fletcher said. "Ignoring the information before them, the commission went forward with approving regulations to close 116 square miles of southern California's coastal waters to recreational fishing. Many of the best sportfishing areas are included in the closures.
"These closures don't just disappoint the fishermen - they take away jobs and income for many California small businesses along the coast and elsewhere," Fletcher emphasized. " Particularly concerning are the flaws in a regulatory process that has been fueled with private money from special interests. The end result of this process has been a rush by the commission to adopt regulations without the authority it has to have to adopt them, and without a proper review of the environmental consequences of what they're doing. That should be a concern for all Californians, whether they fish for fun or for a living, or whether they've never been fishing at all."
"Much of the best fishing areas are now closed under the MLPA process," noted Dan Wolford, Science Director for the Coastside Fishing Club. "Anglers in the North Central region are now suffering because of excessive, unnecessary closures that we believe were improperly established. We find it extremely concerning that anglers, who are the original conservationists, are being taken off the water through a seriously flawed process, while the real threats to the health of our ocean, such as contaminated stormwater runoff and industrial pollutants, are allowed to continue unabated."
The petition is the second lawsuit involving the MLPA by members of the PSO. In May 2010, Fletcher filed suit against the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and Master Plan Team - also known as the Science Advisory Team - for failing to respond to a Public Records Act request, as state agencies are required to do.
These groups claimed that they were not required to make their records available to the public on the ground that they are not "state agencies." Last October, a California Superior Court ruled that the Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Science Advisory Team are indeed state agencies and therefore are compelled by California's Public Records Act to share information that they were withholding from public view.
"The good intentions of the MLPA have been derailed by private interests and political motivations," said Fletcher. "We urge anglers, outdoors enthusiasts and anyone who supports good government and the public's right to know what its government is doing, to visit http://www.oceanaccessprotecti... and donate what they can to help us to continue to fight this flawed process in the courts."
Besides the two PSO lawsuits, David Gurney, an independent film maker from Fort Bragg, is suing MLPA officials and state agencies in Mendocino County Superior Court over his arrest for recording and speaking at a "work session" in Fort Bragg on April 20, 2010.
"California's open meeting laws guarantee that citizens and members of the press have a right to keep track of what goes on in a public process, and assures they will not be harassed at public meetings," said Gurney and his lawyer Peter Martin in a news release. "Yet the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, funded by the secretive Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, often had secret, unrecorded meetings, changed the rules of their process at whim, and abided only by the laws of their own choosing."
The defendants in the complaint include the California Department of Fish and Game, California Natural Resources Agency, Eric Bloom, Ken Wiseman, Eric Poncelet and the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
This is my open letter to John Laird, who is expected to be appointed as Natural Resources Secretary, the top environmental post in in California, by Governor Jerry Brown. Environment California and the Sierra Fund in press releases announced his appointment, although neither Laird nor Brown have confirmed it yet.
The 60-year-old Santa Cruz resident served in the California Assembly from 2002 to 2008. The Democrat's career includes Analyst, Santa Cruz County Administrative Office, 1974-1978, 1979-1991, 1995-2002; Santa Cruz City Council, 1981-1990; mayor, 1983-84 and 1987-88; and executive director of Santa Cruz AIDS Project, 1991-1994.
Environment California praised Brown's appointment of Laird based on his environmental record in the Assembly and on the California Waste Board.
"From waste reducer to wildlife protector Laird is sure to make 2011 a great year for the environment," said Environment California Legislative Director Dan Jacobson in a press statement. "Legislative Director "John Laird is a great choice to defend and protect the environment. His work as a state legislator and on the Waste Board gives him the experience he will need to make a major impact."
"As the chair of key environmental committees, Laird authored several bills to protect our environment, including several bills to protect our ocean. As the chair of the budget committee he knows how to fund key environmental programs," Jacobson stated.
The appointment of Laird is expected to garner strong opposition from agribusiness, timber industry and the California Republican Party. In an article in the San Jose Mercury News on January 1, Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring slammed his appointment.
"An appointment like John Laird, to me, is an indicator of how far to the left Jerry Brown is reaching to populate his administration," said Nehring, a former member of the state Board of Forestry. "John Laird is an extreme liberal, and he believes the only way to protect the environment is to make government as big and intrusive as possible."
On the other hand, fishermen, Tribes and grassroots environmentalists worry that Laird may be too heavily influenced by representatives of well-funded corporate environmentalist NGOs, known for their strong support of controversial programs including Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative, the peripheral canal and Bay Delta Conservation Plan and "cap and trade" corporate "green energy" scams. They are worried that Laird may not listen to grassroots activists - and will continue the failed ocean and water policies of the Schwarzenegger administration that resulted in the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt and the creation of fake "marine protected areas."
"I hope that Mr Laird remembers to listen to all of the 'stakeholders' and those to whom the last Secretary failed to hear," said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe. "No matter the politics around him, I hope he sees the resources that he is now over seeing as the precious gifts they are and not items of commodity to be abused and sold."
Open Letter to John Laird: Save Our Fisheries!
John Laird, California Natural Resources Secretary
Dear John
Congratulations on your appointment to the Natural Resources Secretary position by Governor Jerry Brown.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger finally left office on January 2, 2011 after waging an unprecedented war on California fish populations and fishing communities since he came to power in a recall election. Faced with the environmental wreckage that Schwarzenegger has left in his wake, you, as the new Natural Resources Secretary and the Governor will have a monumental task ahead if you plan to restore California salmon and other fish populations.
You have a rare opportunity to break with the failed water and fish management policies of Secretaries Lester Snow and Mike Chrisman. Rather than pushing the agenda of agribusiness leaders, southern California water agency representatives, water privateers and corporate environmentalists as Snow and Chrisman did, I strongly encourage you to listen to and work cooperatively with recreational anglers, California Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, environmental justice communities and grassroots environmentalists in an unprecedented effort to restore our declining Central Valley and North Coast salmon and Delta fish populations.
"I hope that Mr. Laird remembers to listen to all of the 'stakeholders' and those to whom the last Secretary failed to hear," said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe. "No matter the politics around him, I hope he sees the resources that he is now over seeing as the precious gifts they are and not items of commodity to be abused and sold."
Here are seven immediate actions that I advise you and Brown to take to begin the recovery of California fish and fishing communities.
First, issue an executive order mandating all state agencies to comply immediately with the provisions of the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other species. To comply with these decisions, the state and federal governments must reduce water exports, better manage water releases from dams, remove dams and provide fish passage for fish above dams, including Shasta, Folsom, Englebright and New Melones. The Resources Secretary should work closely with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and federal government to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam.
Second, direct all state agencies, in cooperation with the federal government, to comply with the "doubling goal" of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) of 1992. The law set as its goal the doubling of all natural spawning anadromous fish populations - chinook salmon, steelhead, white sturgeon, green sturgeon, American shad and striped bass - by 2002. However, rather than doubling, these populations of fish collapsed to record low levels because of abysmal management by the state and federal governments.
Third, abolish the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that was instituted under Schwarzenegger and all state plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. Instead of continuing the BDCP's path to the Delta's destruction, You and Brown should establish the first ever "Blue Collar Task Force" (a concept inspired by Troy Fletcher, acting executive director of the Yurok Tribe), to recover fish populations and restore the Delta. The task force would be made up of representatives of California Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, grassroots conservation groups, family farmers, environmental justice organizations and those who have been marginalized in the BDCP and Delta Vision fiascos.
Fourth, cancel or suspend the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and work with the Legislature to begin an investigation of corruption, conflicts of interests and the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, under the process. The investigation would begin with an executive order by Brown, citing the provisions of the California Public Records Act, asking the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, MLPA officials and Department of Fish and Game to turn over all of their records relating to the implementation of the MLPA.
Fifth, you and Brown should meet with Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator, and demand she terminate the "catch shares" program being instituted on the West Coast, since it is a failed environmental strategy that will result in local, sustainable fisheries being replaced with corporate, unsustainable fisheries. This policy, if implemented, will result in the privatization of public trust resources and the concentration of West Coast fisheries in a few corporate hands.
Sixth, the Natural Resources Agency should officially oppose the Water Bond on the November 2012 ballot and should find an alternate source of money to finance California's costs for removing the four PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River, like the State of Oregon has done. Schwarzenegger stuck $250 million for Klamath dam removal in the water bond, an initiative that funds new dams in the Central Valley.
Seventh, increase the game warden force in California by at least 50 officers to stop the epidemic of fish and wildlife poaching that has ravaged the state. California currently has the lowest number of wardens per capita in the United States.
These seven actions by you and the Governor would help to reverse the fishery collapses that the Schwarzenegger administration helped to engineer and will begin to put California fish and fishing communities back on the path to restoration and sustainability.
On November 18, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative announced the release of the text of the recommendations made by the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF). The information includes two marine protected area (MPA) proposals and a special closures recommendation.
The seven motions adopted by the BRTF are available at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/rec... One of the most significant motions, motion 2, clarifies Tribal gathering rights in marine protected areas:
"When the legal authority to do so is clarified and settled by the State of California and California tribes and tribal communities, the BRTF recommends that the California Fish and Game Commission identify 'tribal uses' as a separate category of use in the regulations applicable to each MPA. And, for each state marine conservation area (SMCA), state marine park (SMP) and state marine recreational management area (SMRMA) for which the NCRSG has proposed to allow tribal uses, the California Fish and Game Commission should include the following descriptive language in the regulations: 'Members of California indian tribes and tribal communities shall be allowed to fish, gather and harvest marine resources for California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative traditional, non-commercial subsistence, ceremonial, religious or stewardship purposes.'"
This resolution also provides for "a mutual reservation of rights by the State of California and California tribes and tribal communities."
MPA Proposal and Special Closure Recommendations (MLPA website) are available at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/mpa... These recommendations are the North Coast "Enhanced Compliance" Alternative MPA Proposal (ECA), the Revised Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal (RNCP), and the North Coast Special Closures Recommendation.
The materials currently available are: overview maps, descriptions of individual MPAs, consideration of existing MPAs and special closures maps, description and basic information.
"In the coming days and weeks, additional materials will be made available, including more detailed maps and evaluations of the MPA proposals and recommended special closures," said Kelly Sayce of the MLPA Initiative.
The MPA Proposal and Special Closure Recommendations (Marine Map) are available at: http://northcoast.marinemap.org (under the "MPA Proposals" tab). The names of MPA proposals and special closures recommendations in MarineMap are: the North Coast Enhanced Compliance Alternative MPA Proposal, Revised Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal and North Coast Special Closures Recommendation.
Any of the above information is available in print or on CD: Contact the MLPA office at mlpaoffice [at] resources.ca.gov or 916.654.1885.
The North Coast MLPA process is unique in that the diverse stakeholders, including Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, seaweed harvesters and local business owners, agreed to a unified proposal for marine protected areas. The proposal is also unique for inclusion of language protecting tribal subsistence and ceremonial gathering rights.
Unfortunately, the Fish and Game Commission has already designated and implemented marine protected areas on the Central Coast and North Coast without language protecting sovereign tribal rights, although a marine protected area off Stewarts Point in the North Central region was changed to allow for ceremonial and subsistence use by the Kashia Pomo Tribe after the area was closed on May 1, 2010.
The unified North Coast proposal could not have occurred without the hard work from the stakeholders - and intense political pressure from the Coastal Justice Coalition and Klamath Justice Coalition, who organized two direct action protests at MLPA meetings in Eureka and Fort Bragg.
On July 21, over 300 members of 50 Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, conservationists, recreational anglers, seaweed harvesters, environmental justice advocates and community members peacefully took over a MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of Tribal rights and corporate greenwashing that has occurred under the controversial initiative.
The MPA proposal, developed by the 33-member north coast regional stakeholder group (NCRSG), will be presented to the California Fish and Game Commission together with a modified "enhanced compliance alternative" marine protected area proposal and other recommendations in Sacramento on February 2, 2011.
After the proposal is presented to the Commission, the Commission will hold hearings to solicit public comment. A final decision is not expected until later in the year under the incoming Jerry Brown administration.
Brown has not made any public comments to date about what direction his administration will take regarding the implementation and enforcement of Schwarzenegger's MLPA process. In 2004, Schwarzenegger privatized the process by allowing a private corporation, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, to fund the initiative through a MOU between the foundation and the Department of Fish and Game.
Although some political insiders have speculated about possible Brown appointees to fill positions in the Resources Agency, Department of Fish and Game, Department of Water Resources, State Water Resources Control Board and other state agencies, Brown has not yet announced any appointments in the incoming administration.
Frankie Joe Myers, a Yurok Tribal ceremonial leader and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition that organized the direct action in Fort Bragg on July 21, said that he was glad that the task force adopted the unified proposal and passed motions supporting traditional tribal gathering and co-management, but emphasized that the proposal still has to be approved by the Fish and Game Commission.
"It is close to what we are looking for," said Myers. "However, the proposal still has to go through the Fish and Game Commission - it's not over yet. As native people, we have seen time and time again where we sit down and agree on something and then what comes out in the end is nothing like we expected."
Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists have criticized the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force, a panel that prominently features an oil industry lobbyist, marina developer and real estate executive, for numerous conflicts of interest and violations of state, federal and international laws.
While "Big Green" environmental NGOs including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Ocean Conservancy and the League of Conservation Voters constantly praise Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative for being an "open, transparent and inclusive" process, grassroots environmental and environmental justice organizations such as the Ocean Protection Coalition, Klamath Justice Coalition and Coastal Justice Coalition are among the initiative's fiercest critics.
Here is the press release from the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Task Force regarding the unified Marine Protected Area Proposal for California's North Coast.
"The MPA proposal, developed by the 33-member north coast regional stakeholder group (NCRSG), will be presented to the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) together with a modified enhanced compliance alternative MPA proposal and other recommendations on February 2, 2011 in Sacramento," according to the release.
The initiative is extremely controversial, since it is funded by a private corporation, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. Fishermen, Tribes and environmentalists have criticized the Blue Ribbon Ribbon Task Force that oversees the process for numerous conflicts and violations of state, federal and international laws. The task force includes an oil industry lobbyist, marina developer and real estate executive.
The unified proposal was the first of its kind in this initiative, since multiple proposals with varying levels of "protection" were submitted to the Commission during the Central Coast, North Central Coast and South Coast MLPA processes.
California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative
October 28, 2010
Task Force Approves Recommendations to Complete California's Open Coast Marine Protected Areas
A unanimous recommendation forwards a community-based marine protected area proposal to the California Fish and Game Commission
Fortuna - The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) unanimously voted this week to forward a community-based marine protected area (MPA) proposal for the north coast. The MPA proposal, developed by the 33-member north coast regional stakeholder group (NCRSG), will be presented to the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) together with a modified enhanced compliance alternative MPA proposal and other recommendations on February 2, 2011 in Sacramento.
"The task force decision honors the hard work and compromises made by the regional stakeholder group," said Cindy Gustafson, chair of the BRTF. "We also adopted an alternative proposal that does not alter the placement of MPAs developed by the stakeholders, but strengthens the level of ocean protection to be consistent with other regions in the state while considering the unique environmental conditions and important cultural and socioeconomic interests specific to the north coast."
The MPA proposal and modified enhanced compliance alternative are based on the efforts of the NCRSG, a group composed of individuals representing a broad range of interest and in-depth knowledge about local resources. The NCRSG was tasked with evaluating existing MPAs and developing alternative MPA proposals in the north coast study region, from the California-Oregon border to Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County. Members of the NCRSG help ensure that multiple perspectives are heard in the MLPA Initiative's MPA planning process. Maps and descriptions of the MPA proposal and modified enhanced compliance alternative will be posted to the MLPA website in the coming weeks.
In August the NCRSG forwarded a single MPA proposal for the north coast, identified as the Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal, to the BRTF. The Round 3 Proposal was developed after more than a year of formal meetings, numerous informal meetings, public input, and evaluations and analyses from a science advisory team, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and MLPA Initiative staff.
"I'm extremely proud of the stakeholder group for accomplishing their task with great integrity and consideration for the entire north coast region and all ocean users," said Ken Wiseman, executive director of the MLPA Initiative. "The stakeholders did a tremendous job of working together as a community in this science-based public process."
In addition to the NCRSG MPA proposal and modified enhanced compliance alternative MPA proposal, the BRTF adopted two additional recommendations related to traditional tribal uses in the north coast region and recognizing a tribal use category within MPAs, a recommendation for the state to seek co-management partnerships between sister agencies and California tribes and tribal communities, and a recommendation to retain existing MPAs at MacKerricher, Russian Gulch and Van Damme state parks.
Led by Chair Cindy Gustafson, the eight-member BRTF comprises public leaders with experience in addressing complex public policy issues. Appointed by the Secretary for Natural Resources, members of the BRTF were charged with overseeing the north coast study region planning process and providing its recommendations to the FGC.
Proposal 0, which is the existing MPAs in the study region, was also used as a baseline. The FGC and DFG will include Proposal 0 as the "no project" alternative during the state regulatory and environmental review processes. The commission's process to adopt north coast MPAs is expected to take about one year and includes numerous opportunities for public input.
California has three types of MPAs - marine conservation areas, marine parks and marine reserves - that are utilized in the proposals as part of an ecosystem-based approach to protecting valuable marine life and critical habitats. In addition, several state marine recreational management areas (SMRMAs) are proposed along with the MPAs. Allowed activities vary greatly among the three types of MPAs and SMRMAs, ranging from limiting certain types of commercial and recreational activities to establishing no-take areas; public access is allowed in all four. The proposed MPAs and SMRMAs do not restrict public access or non-consumptive recreational enjoyment, such as boating, swimming, diving or kayaking.
In 1999 the state enacted the MLPA, which directs the state to reexamine and redesign California's system of marine protected areas with the goal of increasing its coherence and effectiveness at protecting the state's marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems and marine natural heritage, as well as to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems.
Making recommendations for MPAs along the north coast, utilizing the best readily available science and the advice of stakeholders, is one of a number of steps being taken in California to implement the MLPA, which is part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Ocean Action Plan. To achieve this goal, the California Natural Resources Agency and DFG partnered with the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation to establish the MLPA Initiative, a public-private partnership designed to help the state implement the MLPA, guided by the advice of scientists, resource managers, experts, stakeholders and members of the public.
A panel overseeing the creation of marine protected areas on the North Coast voted unanimously today to forward the unified proposal developed by Tribal, fishing and environmental stateholders to the Fish and Game Commission.
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) also unanimously passed a motion, made by BRTF member Roberta Cordero, affirming the uniqueness of tribal uses of ocean resources. The motion included a mutual reservation of rights by the state and California Tribes and Tribal communities.
In addition, the panel passed a motion, made by BRTF member Meg Caldwell, urging the state agencies to work with Tribes in the comanagement of marine protected areas, according to Annie Reisewitz of the MLPA Initiative. The Task Force also voted to forward an "enhanced compliance alternative" plan that aims to meet more science guidelines
If adopted by the Commission, the unified proposal would result in about 13 percent of the North Coast region being restricted or closed to fishing and gathering, versus 16 to 20 percent in other regions of the state.
"The actions taken today really exemplified the unified voice that came from the North Coast communities and it was a nice ending to the MLPA process on the North Coast," said Reisewitz.
Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, said the approval of the single proposal represented a "tremendous effort by North Coast recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes and Tribal Communities, local conservationists and local governments to come together."
On October 20, three counties, 10 cities and three harbor districts signed and sent a resolution to the state of California urging the adoption without modification of the unified array for marine protected areas developed by North Coast Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders.
Resolution endorsers include the Counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte and the cities of Monterey, Point Arena, Fort Bragg, Willits, Ukiah, Fortuna Eureka, Arcata, Trinidad and Crescent City. Other agencies signing onto the resolution include the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District, Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District and Crescent City Harbor District.
Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata), who has been critical of the MLPA Initiative, urged the task force to adopt the single proposal.
"I believe that there are fundamental flaws in the way that the MLPA has been implemented," Chesbro told the panel. "The MLPA Initiative has not looked at the ecological differences betweeen regions in the state. They have no consideration of existing fishing regulations. I strongly urge that the unified proposal be adopted unchanged."
"The unified proposal is fragile like a soap bubble," quipped Martin, emphasizing the hundreds and hundreds of hours that were spent by Tribes, fishermen, seaweed harvesters, local governments and businesses to develop one proposal. "If you reach out and touch it, it will pop. The adoption of the proposal with no substantive changes is a huge victory for all of the North Coast communities who participated in the process."
Megan Rocha, Self-Governance Officer of the Yurok Tribe, applauded the resounding support for the unified proposal plus the recognition of tribal uses by the task force and the stakeholders.
"The Tribe now looks forward to working with the Department of Fish and Game, the Fish and Game Commission and the Legislature to resolve the tribal use issue," she said. "The motion regarding the mutual reservation of rights by the Tribes and the state is really big, since early on in the process the state said it didn't have the authority to recognize tribal uses. Now we can move forward and recognize that the real issue is resource management, not quibbling over who has authority."
On July 21, over 300 members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists, seaweed harvesters and community activists peacefully took over the previous Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting to protest the violation of tribal fishing and gathering rights under the MLPA.
Frankie Joe Myers, a Yurok Tribal ceremonial leader and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition that organized the direct action, said that he was glad that the task force adopted the unified proposal and passed motions supporting traditional tribal gathering and co-management.
"It is close to what we are looking for," said Myers. "However, the proposal still has to go through the Fish and Game Commission - it's not over yet. As native people, we have seen time and time again where we sit down and agree on something and then what comes out in the end is nothing like we expected."
Some critics of the controversial MLPA Initiative, including David Gurney, the independent journalist and activist who was arrested for filming a work session on the MLPA Regional Stakeholders Group in April, don't support the unified proposal.
"The fraudulent MLPA Initiative is indeed a bubble, as referred to by Jim Martin," said Gurney. "It is a soapy, oily bubble of fraud and corruption that has plagued this state for six years and running. The MLPA Initiative was a fraud from the get-go, and will continue to be up until the time that they arrest you for trying to feed yourself. You cannot legislate who will eat and who will starve."
Judith Vidaver, chair of the Ocean Protection Coalition, also criticized the proposal for eliminating the only public access, an area managed by Caltrans, for shore based fishing and gathering between between Cleone and Westport by the creation of the Ten Mile MPA.
"So after presenting this issue, along with members of the Regional Stakeholders Group, to the BRFT multiple times with no response from the BRTF, I asked them to make a motion to move the boundary 600 feet south," said Vidaver. "On consultation, DFG made it clear that to do so would result in the Ten Mile MPA, the back bone of the whole array, no longer meeting the minimum science guidelines."
"The BRTF did leave it open to the RSG to possibly come up with a solution. We are researching our options," she added.
She also emphasized that "OPC believes the MLPAI is politically-not science-driven." Fishing groups, Tribes and environmentalists have criticized the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force, a panel that includes an oil lobbyist, marina developer and real estate executive, for conflicts of interests over the designation of marine protected areas.
"Several members of the BRTF have conflicts of interest, most obviously, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association, who repeatedly lobbies for opening up the entire coast of California to offshore oil drilling," Vidaver told the BRTF during the public comment period before their votes. "OPC again requests Mrs. Reheis-Boyd and anyone else with blatant conflicts of interest, to recuse themselves from these proceedings."
However, Vidaver did note that Reheis-Boyd made the proposal to move the unified proposal forward. "That action goes a long way towards alleviating our concerns about her conflicts of interest," Vidaver said.
The Fish and Game Commission will not make a final decision on the adoption of the new North Coast marine protected areas until 2011. Meanwhile, the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans and United Anglers of Southern California continue to pursue multi-layered litigation against the MLPA Initiative.
On October 1, a Superior Court Judge in Sacramento issued a ruling confirming that two panels overseeing the MLPA Initiative must comply with the California Public Records Act. Judge Patrick Marlette ruled that the Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) and Master Plan Team (MPT) are state agencies and are therefore compelled by California's Public Records Act to share information with representatives of angling/conservation organizations working to protect recreational ocean access.
Seventeen local government agencies have signed a resolution to the state of California urging the adoption without modification of the unified array for marine protected areas developed by North Coast Tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders.
The resolution, sent to the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force and California Fish and Game Commission on October 20, says that if any changes to the proposal are considered, they must be developed in collaboration with Regional Stakeholders and North Coast communities.
The resolution emphasizes that "long term success of MPAs (marine protected areas) will required acceptance by local communities."
"Although many community members do not believe any new MPAs are warranted, the Unified MLPA Array represents a compromise acceptable to North Coast residents, including recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen and conservation advocates," the resolution says.
The resolution also includes strong language supporting Tribal fishing and gathering rights. "Any approved MPA array design will need to allow traditional, non-commercial, gathering, subsistence, harvesting, ceremonial and stewardship activities by California Tribes and Tribal Communities," the resolution states.
Government agencies endorsing the resolution include the Counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte and the cities of Monterey, Point Arena, Fort Bragg, Willits, Ukiah, Fortuna Eureka, Arcata, Trinidad and Crescent City. Other agencies signing onto the resolution include the Shelter Cove Resort Improvement District, Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District and Crescent City Harbor District.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) will meet on Monday, October 25 and Tuesday, October 26 at the River Lodge Conference Center, 1800 Riverwalk Drive in Fortuna, to approve a proposal for a network of marine protected areas to send to the Fish and Game Commission for approval.
North Coast residents fear that the task force will try to change the proposal under pressure by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom many believe is using the controversial MLPA process to greenwash his environmental legacy.
"Even with this widespread support for the single proposal, we are worried that the BRTF may be interested in coming up with its own alternative," said Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.
North Coast fishermen, Tribes and environmentalists have criticized the MLPA Initiative for violating the Bagley-Keene Public Meetings Act, California Public Records Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and other state, federal and international laws.
MLPA critics also point out that the Blue Ribbon Task Force that oversees the process includes oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate operatives with numerous conflicts of interest. The process is funded by a private corporation, the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation overseen by executive director Michael Eaton.
On July 21, over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers and environmental activists peacefully took over the previous Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg to protest the denial of tribal rights and greenwashing that has occurred under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative. This was the largest protest held on the North Coast since the Redwood Summer of 1990.
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force is meeting on Monday, October 25 and Tuesday October 26 in Fortuna, California to approve a network of marine protected areas on the North Coast.
In contrast to the MLPA process elsewhere in California, the stakeholders from fishing groups, Indian Tribes, environmental NGOs, and coastal businesses agreed to one proposal. The proposal is supported by a number of local governments, agencies and community groups.
These include the Counties of Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino and the Cities of Fort Bragg, Point Arena, Ukiah, Willits, Arcata, Fortuna, Eureka, Crescent City and Monterey. Organizations supporting the proposal include the Recreational Fishing Alliance, Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PS), Salmon Trollers Marketing Association and Humboldt Baykeeper.
"Even with this widespread support, we are worried that the BRTF may be interested in coming up with its own alternative," said Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. "So we need lots of bodies in the room when the Task Force meets in Fortuna Oct. 25-26."
Martin said you can also visit CV Starr Center in Fort Bragg or Flynn Center in Crescent City and provide public comment from the remote location. "We need people will to cede their time on their speaker cards so your presence is important even if you do not want to speak," he noted.
On July 21, over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers and environmental activists peacefully took over the previous Blue Ribbon Task Force meeting in Fort Bragg to protest the denial of tribal rights and greenwashing that has occurred under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative.
Fortunately, each marine protected area in the single plan released on August 31 includes language to allow continued tribal uses. In certain areas, the stakeholders also included language allowing for co-management between the tribes and the state.
"The stakeholders did the best they could in respecting tribal gathering and fishing rights," said Megan Rocha, Acting Self-Governance Officer of the Yurok Tribe, on September 1. "Now this issue will go to the state of California and tribes to work it out at the next level."
Here are the details for the upcoming meeting:
Who: MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force
What: Eighth meeting
When: Monday, October 25, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. and Tuesday, October 26 at 8:00 a.m.
Where: River Lodge Conference Center1800 Riverwalk DriveFortuna, CA 95540 and on the day of the meeting (for viewing or listening only) via simultaneous webcast at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/mee...
Note that there will be two public access locations for the public to view the meeting webcast and participate in public comment: Flynn Center Multipurpose Room, 981 H Street, Crescent City, CA 95531 and C.V. Starr Community Center, 300 South Lincoln Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437
Public Comment: "The public will be invited to offer general comments on subjects related to the work of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 25. Speaker cards are requested and may be found at the entrance to the room. Time allotted for public comment is determined by the number of requests; submitting written comments that can be easily summarized in one to two minutes is encouraged," according to an MLPA Initiative announcement.
If you cannot make the meeting, help out by submitting written comment and support for the Unified Array - email: MLPAcomments [at] resources.ca.gov.
Fishermen, Tribes, environmentalists, seaweed harvesters and coastal residents have been very critical of the conflicts of interests and violations of state, federal and international laws that have taken place under the MLPA Initiative. Now you have a chance to put on record what you think about the MLPA process.
Please take a few minutes to respond to a scientific survey: http://www.northcoastsurvey.org. I was able to fill it out online in less than five minutes: it's a series of "radio buttons" that you click on.
For more information, contact: Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director, Recreational Fishing Alliance, (707) 964-8326 office, (707) 357-3422 cell, P.O. Box 2420, Fort Bragg, CA 95437.
Interested members of the public are invited to comment on the Round 3 Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group (NCRSG) Marine Protected Area (MPA) Proposal and NCRSG Special Closures Recommendation, according to an announcement from the MLPA Initiative on September 28.
In contrast with other regions, the North Coast stakeholders, including Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, businesses, seaweed harvesters and environmentalists, adopted a single marine protected area proposal to be submitted to the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force.
"The public is invited to provide written and/or verbal comments to help inform the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) at its October 25-26, 2010 meeting," the announcement stated. "Feedback on specific MPAs or special closures, including boundaries, designation type, proposed allowed uses (take regulations) and general location is valuable."
Over 300 people including members of 50 Indian Tribes, environmentalists, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers and human rights activists peacefully took over the task force's previous meeting in Fort Bragg on July 21 to protest the violation of tribal rights and greenwashing that has occurred under the controversial MLPA Initiative. As the protesters marched on the meeting, they shouted "MLPA, taking tribal rights away" and "No Way, MLPA."
MLPA critics have blasted the so-called marine protected areas created under this process for completely taking oil drilling, water pollution, military testing, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table. The Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversee the MLPA process are dominated by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests. In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the chair of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the South Coast Task Force and now sits on the North Coast Task Force.
The public can submit comments the following ways:
WRITTEN COMMENTS
Written comments are encouraged to be submitted by October 18, 2010 so that BRTF members can receive and review them prior to the October 25-26 meeting. Written comments received between October 19 and 21 will be provided to the BRTF at the October meeting; after October 21, written comments must be submitted at the BRTF meeting in Fortuna. Written comments can be submitted via:
c/o California Natural Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916.653.8102, Attn: MLPA Initiative
VERBAL COMMENTS
MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force Meeting
October 25-26, 2010
River Lodge Conference Center
1800 Riverwalk Drive
Fortuna, CA 95540
The public is invited to provide verbal comments at the upcoming BRTF meeting in Fortuna. Wall maps of the Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal and Round 3 NCRSG Special Closures Recommendation will be available for public viewing at the meeting location.
Public comment will begin at approximately 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 25, 2010. Helpful public comment includes:
Feedback on specific MPAs or special closures, including boundaries, designation type, proposed allowed uses (take regulations) and general location. Do you support what is being proposed? If not, can you offer a specific change to the MPA boundaries, designation type, proposed allowed uses and/or general location that would make it more acceptable?
Feedback on the complete proposal.
As an alternative to attending the meeting in Fortuna, the public is welcome to attend a public participation location to view the meeting and/or provide public comment:
CV Starr Community Center
300 South Lincoln Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
Location TBD
Crescent City, CA
The public will also have an opportunity to comment on any BRTF action items. Please refer to the attached document, Guidelines for Providing Public Comment to the MLPA Initiative North Coast Project for additional information.
Background
At its August 30-31, 2010 meeting, the MLPA North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group (NCRSG) developed a single MPA proposal in Round 3 of the north coast MPA planning process; the NCRSG also developed a recommendation for special closures. The MPA proposal and special closures will be analyzed by the MLPA Master Plan Science Advisory Team, California Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Parks and Recreation, and MLPA Initiative staff. The proposal and special closures will also be reviewed by the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force at its October 25-26, 2010 meeting in Fortuna.
Information about the Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal and Round 3 NCRSG Special Closures Recommendation are available:
MarineMap: http://northcoast.marinemap.org/ (under the "MPA Proposals" tab)
Name of the proposal is Round 3 NCRSG MPA Proposal
Name of the special closures recommendation is Round 3 NCRSG Special Closures Recommendation
Print or CD: Contact the MLPA office at mlpaoffice [at] resources.ca.gov or 916.654.1885
September 30, 2010
Delta and Fishing Activists Disrupt Secret Delta Meetings
For Immediate Release -- September 30, 2010
Bill Jennings - 209-464-5067
Dan Bacher - 916-685-2245, ext. 224
Brett Baker - 916-719-6586
A Thursday morning meeting of Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) principals was disrupted by a fisherman, two environmentalists, and a Delta farmer protesting the closed process.
The Department of Water Resources has told legislators that they're not welcome at meetings of signatories to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the plan that state water exporters have undertaken to secure their water supplies.
The meetings have been going forward behind closed doors since August in what Resources Secretary Lester Snow told lawmakers was "a key procedural component of the public BDCP Steering Committee process."
Showing up this morning at the meeting convened at the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento were Dan Bacher, fisheries activist, researcher, and editor of The Fish Sniffer; Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA); Jim Crenshaw, President/Treasurer of CSPA; and Brett Baker, sixth generation pear farmer from Sutter Island in the Northern Delta.
Speaking seats at the meeting had been reserved for "principals," representatives of the entities who have financed the planning process. Bacher, Jennings, Crenshaw, and Baker were asked not to report the names of any of the participants or attribute quotes to them. They refused.
When asked to leave, the four asked whether they would be arrested if they refused. In response, Secretary Lester Snow disbanded the meeting.
In an interview last week, Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League told the Central Valley Business Times that exporters had withdrawn from the public BDCP process when confronted with overwhelming scientific evidence that exports from the Bay-Delta would have to be reduced to save the Estuary.
Said Minton, "They've been frantically trying to come up with some kind of agreement that could be signed before this Governor leaves office."
A similar push by the Governor has driven the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process going forward in coastal Northern California.
The MLPA process, like the BDCP process, has been characterized by attempts to bypass open meeting laws. In that case, MLPA officials have limited media coverage of their "work sessions," which they distinguish from public meetings. One independent journalist was arrested for trying to film "work session" proceedings.
Newspaper industry and civil liberties attorneys say the process violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act and the 1st Amendment.
The Delta and fishing activists involved in disrupting today's meeting are available for interviews.
Delta advocates view the BCDP as a thinly-veiled attempt by the Governor to put in place the plans for a peripheral canal/tunnel before he leaves office.
Schwarzenegger Announces Appointment - 14 Minutes Before Commission Meeting!
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday announced the appointment of Jack Baylis to the Fish and Game Commission just 14 minutes before a special meeting of the Commission began at McClellan in Sacramento.
The Governor's Office sent the press release out at 11:46 am to announce the appointment of the guy who would be voting on an extension of the public comment period for the South Coast Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) under Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
The meeting began at noon, with the new Commissioner joining the other four Commissioners. After over 2 hours of testimony by Tribes, fishermen and environmental NGO representatives, Baylis and the four other Commission members unanimously voted to extend the public comment deadline from October 4 to October 19, a 15 day extension.
Commission President Jim Kellogg made the motion for the Commission to adopt the extension, while Commissioner Richard Rogers seconded the motion.
"When we are dealing with so many people's lives today, I don't see anything wrong with extending time for a decision that will last forever," said Kellogg. "Ultimately, it's the five people on this Commission who make the final decision - we're the ones who have to live with the decision."
He said he found it ironic that the same groups that push for delays in the CEQA process all of the time in his position as a labor leader are the ones opposing an extension of the public comment process.
Tribes, fishermen and environmental justice advocates had asked for a 45 day extension of the public comment period to provide the public with badly needed time to review and comment on the 548-page report, while representatives of NRDC, the Ocean Conservancy, the Coastkeeper Alliance and other NGOs spoke about the initiative's "inclusiveness" and pleaded with the Commission to not grant any extension because it would put the process behind schedule.
"Please respect this great, inclusive process by not delaying the process any longer," Marcela Gutierrez of WILDCOAST urged the Commissioners, citing the hundreds of miles that stakeholders spent in meetings and the hundreds of miles that they drove to and from meetings.
"I understand some of the Commission's concerns about the many hours that stakeholders and Blue Ribbon Task Force members spent on the process, but only two tribal members sitting on the South Coast Stakeholders Group out of 64 people doesn't allow for fair and equitable exchange of information on the South Coast plan," said Atta P. Stevenson, a tribal seaweed harvester representing the Inter-Tribal Water Commission of California and the City of Fort Bragg, after the decision. "The South Coast plan is directly opposite of the single proposal adopted on the North Coast that supports the inherent tribal rights and cultural ways still practiced on the ocean today."
Stevenson, a Cahto Tribe member who sat on the Regional Stakeholders Group (RSG) for the North Coast, added, "My heart goes out to the game wardens faced with budget cuts who have to enforce the law in new marine protected areas when they can't protect the protected areas now in place."
Randy Yonemura, a member of the Miwok Tribe and the Inter-Tribal Water Commission, after telling the Commissioners, "Welcome to Miwok Territory," also recommended an extension of the public comment period.
George Osborn, representing both the California Fish and Game Wardens Association and the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), and Vern Goehring of the California Fisheries Coalition urged the Commission to support a 45-day extension, too.
"This decision should be easy," Osborn said. "This decision is not pro or anti-MLPA. The decision has a precedent with the Commission - it has been done before. In 2002, a 45 day extension in the Channel Islands public comment was granted by the Commission."
The Commission will meet in San Diego October 20-21 to discuss the MLPA South Coast Region's new marine protected areas. The Commission is expected to adopt the final set of marine protected areas on December 15. To read the report, go to http://www.dfg.gov/mlpa/impact...
According to the Governor's Office, Baylis, 53, of Los Angeles, has been the U.S. group executive of strategic development for AECOM Technology Corporation since 2006. Previously, Baylis worked for CH2M Hill as senior vice president from 2000 to 2006 and was president and chief operating officer for Linabond from 1996 to 2000. He worked for Brown and Caldwell Engineers as vice president and corporate officer from 1994 to 1995, program manager from 1990 to 1993 and staff engineer from 1988 to 1990.
Baylis was appointed to the Coastal Conservancy in 2009, where he served as a member until 2010. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Baylis is now registered decline-to-state, whereas he was registered as a Republican in 2009, according to a previous press release.
Baylis replaces Mike Sutsos, who sat on the Commission for only 18 days before being removed. This was an obvious move by the Governor to complete his fast-track MLPA Initiative before he leaves office, just like the Schwarzenegger administration is now holding secret meetings of corporate agribusiness leaders, water agency officials, government bureacrats and environmental NGO representatives under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to set in place the Governor's plan to build a peripheral canal/tunnel before he leaves office.
Commissioners Sutsos, Dan Richards and Jim Kellogg would have undoubtedly voted for a 45-day delay if Schwarzenegger hadn't unceremoniously removed Sutsos from the Commission just two days before the vote.
In an interview on Monday with Ed Zieralski of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Richards slammed Schwarzenegger for his underhand move and for the corruption that has flourished under the MLPLA Initiative (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...-raises-doubts).
"This just shows how corrupt this process is," Richards said. "This process, the Marine Life Protection Act, is so corrupt, so offensive it's unimaginable. Gov. Schwarzenegger is a forked-tongue devil."
Commissioner Dan Richards Calls Governor A 'Fork-Tongued Devil'
by Dan Bacher
In the secrecy and corrupt politics that have characterized the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarnenegger, the lame-duck Governor on Monday removed Michael Sutsos, a member of the California Fish and Game Commission who had just been recently appointed, and selected a new Commissioner.
Members of fishing groups, California Indian Tribes and grassroots environmentalists believe that Sutsos was removed to make sure that the Commission votes down a request to extend the public comment period for the South Coast Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIR) for the Governor Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative in a special Fish and Game Commission meeting to be held in McClellan, CA. on Wednesday, September 29 from noon to 5 pm.
In his first and only Commission meeting during his 18 days as a commissioner, Sutsos was one of three Commissioners to vote favorably for holding the meeting to consider the comment period extension.
Jack Baylis, a public member of the Coastal Conservancy, will be sworn in tomorrow as a Fish and Game Commissioner, Then, in a gross miscarriage of justice, he will go straight to the Commission meeting at McClellan to vote on the extension! He will resign as a Coastal Conservancy member.
Baylis, 52, is apparently a corporate Schwarzenegger stooge appointed to greenwash the Governor's ocean and other environmental policies before he leaves office.
Baylis has worked as AECOM Technology Corporation since 2006 and currently serves as the US group executive for strategic development. Prior to that, Baylis worked for CH2M Hill, where he served in a variety of positions including senior vice president and vice president from 2000 to 2006. From 1996 to 2000, he served as the president and chief operating officer for Linabond and, from 1994 to 1995, Baylis was the vice president and corporate officer for Brown and Caldwell Engineers.
He serves as vice chair of the Heal the Bay Board of Directors - a group that adamantly supports Schwarzenegger's fast-track MLPA Initiative - and is a founding member and strategic planning committee chair of the Clean Water America Alliance. Baylis is also a member of the California State Parks and Recreation Commission. Baylis is a Republican.
"Sutsos' dismissal is no surprise," said Vern Goehring of the California Fisheries Coalition. "The Governor doesn't want to sit idly and watch his MLPA process be delayed over to the next administration. The MLPA proponents are trying to shut down down the public comment period to keep important information off the official record. If the project was warranted, it could withstand the change of Administrations."
"An extension of the DEIR is completely warranted and necessary given the importance and complexity of this report," said Paul Lebowitz, director of the Kayak Fishing Association of California and member of the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO). "Mr. Sutsos felt that all of the issues and controversy surrounding the DEIR were worthy of further consideration. Obviously that did not jive with Governor Schwarzenegger's agenda to railroad the process through before he leaves office, so the Governor now will appoint a more politically compliant commissioner."
"From the outset, the MLPA process has been plagued by a rush to meet arbitrary deadlines while science, data and transparency have been lacking," noted Steve Fukuto, president of United Anglers of Southern California, also a PSO member. "Unfortunately we have seen these concerns consistently pushed aside in an effort to meet politically-based deadlines. The termination of Mr. Sutsos' appointment is further proof of the Governor's true intentions."
Sutsos' removal was confirmed today by Ed Zieralski of the San Diego Union-Tribune in an interview that he conducted with Dan Richards, Fish and Game Commmissioner (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/28/fish-and-game-commissioners-removal-raises-doubts).
Richards told Zieralski that he received a call about Sutsos removal on Monday. Ironically, Sutsos was appointed after the California Senate refused to confirm the appointment of Don Benninghoven, a Schwarzenegger stooge, after a flood of letters and phone calls in opposition to his confirmation by fishermen and environmental justice advocates.
Last August Schwarzenegger appointed Benninghoven days before a key Commission meeting in Woodland to impose so-called "marine protected areas" on the North Central Coast, in spite of massive opposition by fishermen, Indian Tribes, seaweed harvesters and North Coast environmentalists. In an egregious example of racism and elitism, the new closures removed the Kashia Pomo Tribe and other Indian Tribes from their traditional ceremonial and subsistence fishing and gathering areas.
Fortunately, an historic "blessing ceremony" held by the Kashia Pomo elders at Stewarts Point in protest of the closures and pressure by tribal leaders and lawyers led to an exemption for tribal members and recreational users on a small section of the reserve. However, the Commission and the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force have yet to fully recognize tribes as sovereign nations and respect tribal fishing and gathering rights that they have no jurisdiction over.
In the interview, Richards, who has consistently stood up for fishermen and tribes with fellow Commissioner Jim Kellogg in votes on the MLPA Initiative, had very harsh words for Schwarzenegger and the MLPA fiasco.
"This just shows how corrupt this process is," Richards said. "This process, the Marine Life Protection Act, is so corrupt, so offensive it's unimaginable. Gov. Schwarzenegger is a forked-tongue devil."
"The reason I have such a problem with (Sutsos) getting taken off the Commission is that this denigrates and disrespects every person who worked on the MLPA process," Richards told Zieralski. "Many of the people who worked on the stakeholder groups weren't paid, certainly weren't hired guns. That's why this is so offensive to me. These people don't care about what the science says, what the reality is, or how what waters they close will affect people's livelihoods."
Well-funded corporate environmental NGOs including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Ocean Conservancy and California League of Conservation Voters are pushing the Commission to reject the proposed extension in order to greenwash Schwarzenegger's abysmal environmental legacy before he leaves office.
In over 27 years of covering California environmental and water issues, the MLPA initiative is the most corrupt process I have ever researched. The Initiative, funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, has taken water pollution, oil drilling, wave energy projects, military testing, habitat destruction and all other human uses of the ocean off the table in its perverse conception of "marine protected areas."
The Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversee the MLPA Initiative are dominated by oil industry, marina development, real estate and other corporate interests that have many conflicts of interest in the implementation process. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, was the chair of the South Coast MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force and now serves on the North Coast panel.
The MLPA and the removal of Sutsos must be seen in the context of the worst-ever administration for fish, the environment, tribes and fishermen in California history. Schwarzenegger and his collaborators including Resources Secretary Lester Snow have presided over the unprecedented collapse of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations, spurred by record water exports out of the California Delta.
Rather than address these problems, the Governor and his collaborators have gone out of their way to aggravate the collapse by campaigning to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate increased water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. In addition, the Governor has allowed agribusiness on the Scott and Shasta River valleys to de-water these Klamath River tributaries every year at tremendous peril to endangered and threatened coho salmon, chinook salmon and steelhead populations.
I agree entirely with Richards that Schwarzenegger is "a forked-tongue devil." While Schwarzenegger has grandstanded at endless photo opportunities and press conferences about "green energy" and "climate change," he has waged a relentless war against fishermen, Tribes and the state's fish populations. There is nothing "green" about Schwarzenegger other than the toxic "green" of corporate money that he and his collaborators worship.
I urge you to support this action alert calling for a 90-day extension of the public comment period for the South Coast Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) as part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's widely-contested Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. Please send in your comments TODAY and then attend the California Fish and Game Commission meeting at McClellan (north of the city of Sacramento) from noon to 5 pm on Thursday.
Below the action alert is my article on the upcoming meeting, followed by a letter from the California Fisheries Coalition supporting an extension of the public comment period.
Please forward widely!
Thanks
Dan
Urgent Action Alert from Keep America Fishing:
California Fish and Game Commission to Hold Special Meeting to Discuss Timeline for South Coast MLPA Report
Send in your comments today asking for more time for review of this large, complex and highly important document
The Situation
On September 29, 2010, the California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) will hold a special meeting to discuss and consider a potential extension to the public comment period for the South Coast region Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) as part of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) implementation process. The DEIR, which was released on August 18, 2010, analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the marine protected area (MPA) proposals currently under consideration for this area. The DEIR was given a 45-day review and comment period.
The DEIR is a 548-page document that addresses a number of complex environmental issues that require careful consideration. The recreational fishing and boating community believes that it is imperative that the FGC extend this to a 90-day period to provide the public with sufficient time to review and comment on this report.
Decisions made under the MLPA process, including the DEIR, will have significant and long-lasting consequences for angling and boating in the region. The public deserves enough time to carefully review and provide input on the DEIR to ensure it is as comprehensive, informative and accurate as possible and is not driven by a need to meet arbitrary deadlines.
SEND YOUR MESSAGE NOW - EXTEND THE COMMENT PERIOD DEADLINE
Send the letter to the FGC urging them to extend the comment period on the DEIR to 90 days by going to http://www.keepamericafishing....
ATTEND UPCOMING FGC MEETING
The FGC will also be receiving public comment during its September 29 meeting. This is your chance to convey to the FGC - in person - the importance of allowing an extension.
The meeting will be held from Noon - 5 p.m. PDT at the Lion's Gate Hotel & Conference Center, 3410 Westover Street, McClellan, Calif.
Commission to Discuss Extending South Coast MLPA Comment Period
by Dan Bacher
The California Fish and Game Commission will hold a special meeting on September 29 in McClellan, California to discuss and consider a potential extension to the public comment period for the South Coast Region Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Fishing and conservation groups are supporting a 90 day extension of the controversial MLPA process to provide the public with sufficient time to review and comment on this report, while some environmental NGOs are opposing the delay in their effort to keep the initiative on its fast track. The initiative is privately funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, led by executive director Michael Eaton.
The DEIR, released on August 18, analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the marine protected area (MPA) proposals currently under consideration for this area. The DEIR was given a 45-day review and comment period. The DEIR is a 548-page document that addresses a number of complex environmental issues that require careful consideration.
"Decisions made under the MLPA process, including the DEIR, will have significant and long-lasting consequences for angling and boating in the region," according to a statement from Keep America Fishing (http://www.keepamericafishing.org). "The public deserves enough time to carefully review and provide input on the DEIR to ensure it is as comprehensive, informative and accurate as possible and is not driven by a need to meet arbitrary deadlines."
In contrast, an action alert from the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (http://www.independent.com/news/2010/sep/20/channelkeeper-asks-help-protecting-socal-coast) claimed, "Delaying plans for Southern California could threaten the historic Marine Life Protection Act-one of our state's most important ocean protection laws that calls for the creation of a statewide network of marine protected areas."
"Half of this network already exists along the California coast from Point Conception to Point Arena, where MPAs are already working to restore ocean health in breathtaking biodiversity hot spots like the Channel Islands, Point Sur, and Point Reyes," the Channelkeeper stated. "But it's up to the Fish and Game Commission to complete the statewide network of protected areas, starting with Southern California."
Unfortunately, the Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates fail to acknowledge that the so-called "marine protected area" network is a grotesque parody of real marine protection being used by Schwarzenegger to greenwash his abysmal environmental legacy. This is the same governor that has presided over the collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other fish populations while campaigning for a peripheral canal, new dams and increased water exports out of the California Delta.
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), a comprehensive, landmark law signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, is very broad in its scope. The law was intended to not only restrict or prohibit fishing in a network of "marine protected areas," but to restrict or prohibit other human activities including coastal development and water pollution.
"Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California's ocean waters," the law states in Fish and Game Code Section 2851, section c.
In contrast with the intent of the original law, the MLPA Initiative under Schwarzenegger has taken oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its bizarre concept of "marine protection." The MLPA would do nothing to stop another Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon oil disaster from devastating the California coast.
The Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates also fail to acknowledge the corruption and conficts of interest that have proliferated under the process. The Governor has installed an oil industry lobbyist, a marina developer, a real estate executive and other corporate interests with numerous conflicts of interests as "marine guardians" on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces to remove Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters from the water in these fake marine protected areas.
In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served as the chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) for the South Coast, as well as a member of the task forces for the North Coast and North Central Coast. This oil industry superstar has in recent months repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast. How can there be any justice under this initiative when Schwarzenegger's head MLPA official for the South Coast is the head oil lobbyist for the Western United States?
On July 21, over 300 people, including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers, environmentalists and seaweed harvesters, peacefully took over a meeting of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of tribal gathering rights and the corporate greenwashing that have proliferated under the initiative.
"This is the largest demonstration on the North Coast since the Redwood Summer of 1990," Dan Hamburg, former North Coast Congressman and current candidate for the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, told me as we marched through the streets of Fort Bragg on the way to the meeting.
"Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is systematically decimate our ability to be who we are," said Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal ceremonial leader and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition. "That is the definition of cultural genocide."
The privatization of ocean conservation management under the shadowy and unaccountable Resources Legacy Fund Foundation is at the core of everything that is wrong with the MLPA process. The time has come for a suspension of the privately-funded initiative, and for state and federal investigations of the conflicts of interests and violations of state, federal and international laws that have bloomed under the MLPA process.
I urge everybody to send a letter to the Fish and Game Commission (FGC) urging them to extend the comment period on the DEIR to 90 days by going to http://www.keepamericafishing.... The FGC needs to hear from you before the upcoming meeting!
You should also attend the commission meeting on September 29. The FGC will be receiving public comment during this meeting. This is your chance to convey to the FGC - in person - the importance of allowing an extension.
The meeting will be held from Noon - 5 p.m. PDT at the Lion's Gate Hotel & Conference Center, 3410 Westover Street, McClellan, California. For more details regarding the September 29 FGC meeting, visit http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings...
For more information on the MLPA Initiative, read my piece, "The questions that Arnold's MLPA proponents don't want to answer," http://www.indybay.org/newsite...
The California Fish and Game Commission will hold a special meeting on September 29 in McClellan, CA. to discuss and consider a potential extension to the public comment period for the South Coast Region Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Fishing and conservation groups are supporting a 90 day extension of the controversial MLPA process to provide the public with sufficient time to review and comment on this report, while some environmental NGOs are opposing the delay in their effort to keep the initiative on its fast track. The initiative is privately funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, led by executive director Michael Eaton.
The DEIR, released on August 18, analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the marine protected area (MPA) proposals currently under consideration for this area. The DEIR was given a 45-day review and comment period. The DEIR is a 548-page document that addresses a number of complex environmental issues that require careful consideration.
"Decisions made under the MLPA process, including the DEIR, will have significant and long-lasting consequences for angling and boating in the region," according to a statement from Keep America Fishing. "The public deserves enough time to carefully review and provide input on the DEIR to ensure it is as comprehensive, informative and accurate as possible and is not driven by a need to meet arbitrary deadlines."
In contrast, an action alert from the Santa Barbara Channelkeeper (http://www.independent.com/news/2010/sep/20/channelkeeper-asks-help-protecting-socal-coast) claimed, "Delaying plans for Southern California could threaten the historic Marine Life Protection Act-one of our state's most important ocean protection laws that calls for the creation of a statewide network of marine protected areas."
"Half of this network already exists along the California coast from Point Conception to Point Arena, where MPAs are already working to restore ocean health in breathtaking biodiversity hot spots like the Channel Islands, Point Sur, and Point Reyes," the Channelkeeper stated. "But it's up to the Fish and Game Commission to complete the statewide network of protected areas, starting with Southern California."
Unfortunately, the Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates fail to acknowledge that the so-called "marine protected area" network is a grotesque parody of real marine protection being used by Schwarzenegger to greenwash his abysmal environmental legacy. This is the same governor that has presided over the collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other fish populations while campaigning for a peripheral canal, new dams and increased water exports out of the California Delta.
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), a comprehensive, landmark law signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, is very broad in its scope. The law was intended to not only restrict or prohibit fishing in a network of "marine protected areas," but to restrict or prohibit other human activities including coastal development and water pollution.
"Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California's ocean waters," the law states in Fish and Game Code Section 2851, section c.
In contrast with the intent of the original law, the MLPA Initiative under Schwarzenegger has taken oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its bizarre concept of "marine protection." The MLPA would do nothing to stop another Exxon Valdez or Deepwater Horizon oil disaster from devastating the California coast.
The Channelkeeper and other MLPA advocates also fail to acknowledge the rampant corruption and conficts of interest that have proliferated under the process. The Governor has installed an oil industry lobbyist, a marina developer, a real estate executive and other corporate interests with numerous conflicts of interests as "marine guardians" on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces to remove Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters from the water in these fake marine protected areas.
In fact, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, served as the chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) for the South Coast, as well as a member of the task forces for the North Coast and North Central Coast. This oil industry superstar has in recent months repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast. How can there be any justice under this initiative when Schwarzenegger's head MLPA official for the South Coast is the head oil lobbyist for the Western United States?
On July 21, over 300 people, including members of 50 Indian Nations, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, immigrant seafood industry workers, environmentalists and seaweed harvesters, peacefully took over a meeting of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force in Fort Bragg to protest the violation of tribal gathering rights and the corporate greenwashing that have proliferated under the initiative.
"This is the largest demonstration on the North Coast since the Redwood Summer of 1990," Dan Hamburg, former North Coast Congressman and current candidate for the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, told me as we marched through the streets of Fort Bragg on the way to the meeting.
"Whether it is their intention or not, what the Marine Life Protection Act does to tribes is systematically decimate our ability to be who we are," said Frankie Joe Myers, Yurok Tribal ceremonial leader and organizer for the Coastal Justice Coalition. "That is the definition of cultural genocide."
The privatization of ocean conservation management under the shadowy and unaccountable Resources Legacy Fund Foundation is at the core of everything that is wrong with the MLPA process. The time has come for a suspension of the privately-funded initiative, and for state and federal investigations of the conflicts of interests and violations of state, federal and international laws that have bloomed under the MLPA process.
I urge everybody to send a letter to the Fish and Game Commission urging them to extend the comment period on the DEIR to 90 days by going to http://www.keepamericafishing.... The FGC needs to hear from you before the upcoming meeting!
You should also attend the commission meeting on September 29. The FGC will be receiving public comment during this meeting. This is your chance to convey to the FGC - in person - the importance of allowing an extension.
The meeting will be held from Noon - 5 p.m. PDT at the Lion's Gate Hotel & Conference Center, 3410 Westover Street, McClellan, California. For more details regarding the September 29 FGC meeting, visit http://www.fgc.ca.gov/meetings...
For more information on the MLPA Initiative, read my piece, "The questions that Arnold's MLPA proponents don't want to answer," http://www.indybay.org/newsite...
National fishing and conservation groups recently announced their support for a single, community-supported marine protected area (MPA) proposal adopted by tribal, fishing and environmental stakeholders for California's North Coast as part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA), on September 9 announced that the RFA has endorsed a resolution in support of the "Unified Array" for marine protected areas on the North Coast.
The resolution has been submitted for the consideration of local governments, tribes and tribal communities, fishing associations and conservation groups. It asks the Governor's MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) to approve the network of MPAs approved by the local regional stakeholder group, including the need to allow traditional tribal gathering.
"Any approved MPA array design will need to allow traditional, non-commercial, gathering, subsistence, harvesting, ceremonial and stewardship activities by California Tribes and Tribal Communities," the resolution reads.
"In other regions of the state, there were numerous proposals moved forward for the BRTF's consideration and they cherry-picked from these proposals to craft their own, to the great disadvantage of recreational anglers in those regions," said Martin. "We are very pleased with the work the stakeholders achieved in the north coast region, and urge all recreational fishermen to join us in support of their work."
Martin said RFA members throughout California volunteered for duty on each region's MLPA regional stakeholder group.
"The entire membership thanks RFA members Tim Klassen, Ben Doane, Brandi Easter and Kevin McGrath for their tireless work on behalf of all recreational fishermen and divers on the north coast," said Martin. "We urge all recreational fishing associations, clubs and organizations to join us in support of the 'Unified MPA Array' by endorsing this resolution and sending it to the Blue Ribbon Task Force."
Then on September 17, the Partnership for Sustainable Oceans (PSO), which represents recreational fishing and boating interests in California, sent a letter to the Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF), the MLPA oversight group, urging them to accept the Regional Stakeholder Group's (RSG) unified array proposal.
"The unified array is the result of immeasurable time and hard work put in by the RSG," said Allen Sansano, director of Fisheries Affairs for NorCal Kayak Anglers, a PSO member. "A lot of tough decisions and compromises were made among the different community interests to come up with this consensus position. This is a proposal that our community can live with and will support."
Throughout the MLPA implementation process in other regions of the state, community groups have submitted multiple proposals only to see the BRTF create its own preferred alternative.
"By abandoning the RSG-created proposals in previous regions, the BRTF wasted the time and energy of the RSG members and disenfranchised many of those involved in the process," noted Bob Fletcher of the Sportfishing Association of California and former Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Fish and Game. "Given that the MLPA is supposed to be an open, transparent and community-driven process, the BRTF should accept the recommendations of the North Coast community instead of making its own."
Sansano concluded, "Modifying the unified array would seriously undermine the hard work and consensus reached by the community stakeholder group. Without local support and cooperation, MPAs have been shown to be completely ineffective or even counter-productive. Given the significant potential effects that the MLPA will have on businesses, traditional user groups and the recreating public, it's important that this process is done correctly and based on sound science with the least economic impact."
The PSO includes the American Sportfishing Association, contributing members of the Avalon Tuna Club, Berkley Conservation Institute, Coastside Fishing Club, International Game Fish Association, Kayak Fishing Association of California, National Marine Manufacturers Association, NorCal Kayak Anglers, Shimano Sport Fisheries Initiative, Southern California Marine Association, Sportfishing Association of California, United Anglers of Southern California and Watermen's Alliance.
I applaud the perseverance and hard work by the tribal, fishing, environmental and business community stakeholders in developing a single proposal for the North Coast under the MLPA process. The stakeholders helped minimize the economic costs to local communities and did their best to protect tribal fishing and gathering rights.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force meets in Fortuna, CA on October 25 and 26 to consider the proposal. I urge you to send letters in support of the "Unified Array" via email to mlpacomments [at] resources.ca.gov.
However, the question needs to be asked - what does the Initiative really protect the oceans from? The MLPA Initiative has completely taken oil drilling, water pollution, corporate aquaculture, wave energy development, habitat destruction and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in the creation of so-called marine protected areas.
The privatization of ocean conservation management under the shadowy and unaccountable Resources Legacy Fund Foundation is at the core of everything that is wrong with the MLPA process. Oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate operatives with conflicts of interest in the outcome of the process dominate the Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversee the MLPA Initiative.
The time has come for a suspension of the privately-funded initiative, and for state and federal investigations of the conflicts of interests and violations of state, federal and international laws that have proliferated under the MLPA process. For more information, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsite...
