California Marine Life Protection Act Advocacy
Take Action To Preserve Environmentally Sustainable Shellfish Farming
Voice your support for local food production, food diversity, ecologically sound shellfish farming and proper stewardship of our state's marine resources. Protect the Estero and allow oyster farming for the benefit of the environment and future generations.
Download and print the letter to the MLPA and mail it to the address on the letter.
Send a copy to all your friends, family members and colleagues and have them sign it and mail it in, too.
Every voice is meaningful - every vote counts!
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The results of the MLPA process could potentially end oyster farming in Drakes Estero.
We are concerned that the outcomes of the final Stakeholders Group and Blue Ribbon Task Force meetings, and the final Science Advisory Team (SAT) gathering on May 30, 2008, will be based on prejudiced information. As it stands now, Drakes Estero is to be designated a "no-take" zone after 2012. However, it is our expectation that the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm will have its lease renewed by that time. Any attempt to remove mariculture through the MLPA process is a misdirected attempt to exert MLPA control over a National Park Service issue that the MLPA has no authority over. We want Drakes Estero protected as an State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) and oyster farming to continue in perpetuity.
We believe the best available science supports continued oyster production in Drakes Estero as an ecologically benign activity that helps reduce human impacts on other marine resources elsewhere on the Pacific coast and around the world, while contributing significantly to the local economy, food security and regional sustainability. We are concerned that the SAT has used opinion pieces, rather than peer reviewed scientific reports, to build a case against continued oyster production in the Estero. In fact, the SAT membership includes individuals known to have participated in or initiated the preparation of those same opinion pieces.
Join us in asking the SAT and the Blue Ribbon Task Force to recognize the critical role played by oyster farming in Drakes Estero as a sustainable component of the region's food system and economy.
The MLPA participants should remain neutral and should not be interpreting National Park Service leases, nor should the PRNS be influencing the MLPA process with their judgments on a lease that has the potential to be renewed beyond 2012. The MLPA should determine the level of protection appropriate for mariculture and remove any mention of the 2012 date for Drakes Estero. MLPA Background
MPAs may be comprised of areas with three levels of protection (listed in order from highest to lowest): state marine reserves, state marine parks, and state marine conservation areas. |
In 1999, the California legislature passed the Marine Life Protection Act that directed the Department of Fish & Game (DFG) to create a master plan for an improved network of marine protected areas (MPAs) along the Pacific coastline. Its main goals are to:
- protect marine life, marine ecosystems and marine natural heritage
- improve recreational, educational and study opportunities, and
- manage these diverse marine habitats as a cohesive network whenever possible.
To meet these goals the coastline has been divided into five study regions with the Central Coast area the first to be reviewed.
In April 2007 the Central Coast MPAs were ratified by the Fish & Game Commission. We are now nearing the completion of phase two, ratification of the North Central Coast Region MPAs, which include Drakes Estero.
MLPA Decision-Making Process
The MLPA Initiative was formed as a public-private partnership to help the state fulfill the requirements of the Marine Life Protection Act. The organizational framework includes regional stakeholders and members of the public, a Science Advisory Team (SAT) chosen by the director of the DFG that reviews the "best readily available science," and a Blue Ribbon Task Force appointed by the Secretary of Resources. The five members of the Fish & Game Commission (appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate) have ultimate authority over the MPA designations. Visit the MLPA website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa for a list of members of each respective panel.
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Where is the process now? (April 17, 2008)
The final meeting of the North Central Coast Stakeholders was held on March 18-19, 2008. The meeting resulted in three alternative MPA proposals that were sent to the Science Advisory Team (SAT) and Blue Ribbon Task Force for review. Each proposal designated Drakes Estero as a state marine conservation area (SMCA), which allows oyster farming, but also contained misleading language that assumes mariculture will cease in 2012, the year the oyster farm's renewable lease is due to expire with the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS). The terms of the oyster farm's lease should have no bearing on the MPA designation for the Estero.
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