The Marine Life Protection Act task force heard from environmentalists, fishermen and local residents on the draft implementation of marine protected areas, several of which could be located in Malibu.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
A raft of environmental agencies and a coalition of commercial and recreational fisheries heatedly argued their positions during a meeting in Santa Monica last week about the merits or detriments of plans to implement Marine Protected Areas off the coast of California.
The California Fish and Game Department’s Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force conducted the public meeting, one of a series throughout the state, to solicit input from regional stakeholders on implementation of the act, which would map the Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, in an effort to protect the state’s marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems and marine natural heritage.
The marine reserves, several of which could be implemented in Malibu, would permit swimming and other recreational activities, but prohibit any kinds of extraction, from fish to kelp, other than for certain scientific data collection.
The task force panel heard from researchers regarding oceanographic patterns, coastal watershed impacts, fish biodiversity and marine mammal haul out sites, all in an effort to determine how much of local coastal waters should be protected, while still respecting commercial and recreational fishing’s impact on the state economy.
Vern Goehring, of the California Fisheries Coalition, spoke of the almost $6 billion fishing interests that contribute to the California economy annually.
“Before the Fish and Game Department designated MPAs along the northern and central coasts, they never determined if fisheries were being managed properly in the first place,” Goehring said. “Our studies show California waters having some of the lowest exploitation rates in the world, with entirely sustainable fish populations.”
However, the consensus of ecology-minded groups like Heal the Bay say that waters around the Channel Islands are particularly sensitive.
Malibu environmental activist Kelly Meyer attended the meeting with a cadre of like-minded citizens, sporting T-shirts proclaiming “MPAs WORK!” She said that pockets of MPAs, like the one proposed off Point Dume, would replenish over-fished marine preserves.
“The Marine Protected Areas that have already been established around the Channel Islands show that MPAs work dramatically,” Meyer said.
“Unfortunately, conservationists are not well enough represented at these meetings,” Steve Benavides, of the Kelp Forest Coalition, said. “The [task force] is used to making difficult decisions with lots of people yelling at them; but they’ll never get all the stakeholders to agree on the proposed maps as drawn.”
Fishermen say the maps currently being considered are too restrictive. Ocean advocates say they are not extensive enough, given the known science.
Bob Bertelli is the president of the California Sea Urchin Commission and insists that MPAs put in place around kelp forests will encourage an explosion in the sea urchin population, resulting in a net loss of kelp.
“Sea urchins eat kelp,” Bertelli said. “If the kelp is lost, all the animals that live in them are lost and tidal action will erode the coastlines. The answer is in fewer and smaller MPAs around kelp forests.”
But Laurel Jones, an environmental activist who helps track the populations of the bird species of least terns and snowy plovers in Malibu, countered, “Why should one transient, commercial industry be allowed to obliterate an entire species? Sea otters eat urchins and they used to be plentiful around here. Now, they’re almost gone entirely.”
Brian Meux, marine biologist and programs manager of the Kelp Restoration and Monitoring Project for Santa Monica Baykeeper, said the kelp beds at Escondido Beach have been entirely restored, thanks to their work pulling more than 40,000 sea urchins out of Malibu waters and relocating them elsewhere.
“There are over 800 species found in kelp forests in an intact food web,” Meux said. “There are plenty of natural predators like sea otters, large sheephead fish and spiny lobsters to keep the sea urchin population in check, if they are left alone. It’s a very resilient ecosystem.
“It’s an amazing reef from Latigo Point to Point Dume,” Meux continued. “We don’t want to be eco-Nazis, but the biodiversity of the area needs protecting. Recreational fishermen all think, ‘I’m just one guy.’ But if there are 1,000 fishermen in the area, that’s 1,000 hooks in the water.”
To some attendants, evidence of the efficacy of MPAs lays in personal experience.
“The only places around here where I see large fish like tuna are in the marine reserves,” Nick Fash, an underwater photographer, said. “When I dive in protected spots, like the Channel Islands, I see huge lobster and species I don’t see elsewhere. MPAs are crucial to the longevity of our oceans. Otherwise, there will be no future for them.”
Three years ago, Dr. Boris Worm of Canada’s Dalhousie University published a paper showing that if current trends continued, world oceans would essentially be fished out by the middle of this century.
The shockwaves sent out into the commercial fishing industry prompted further study and, recently, Worm copublished another paper with Dr. Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, with whom he had formerly been at loggerheads on the issue.
The paper, published in the journal Science, concluded that fishery managers must develop more conservative harvest targets than in the past, but that careful sustainable fishing guidelines could help devastated fish populations rebound.
The California Fish and Game Commission will be reviewing a draft recommendation for mapping MPAs in Southern California by December, with an approved plan to be in place by next summer.
More information can be obtained online at www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/