How best to protect local marine life

Don McEnhill
The Press Democrat
04/23/2008

I've heard it said that we manage through leadership or through crisis. California certainly has its share of crises, which can make it easy to forget about tomorrow while we fight today's fires. But when it comes to the sea, you have to take the long view, the view from the coast stretching out over miles of waves. You have to keep in mind that the little choices we make now add up over time, and lead accordingly.

Over the course of the past 10 months, people from Half Moon Bay to Point Arena and beyond have gathered to design marine protected areas (MPAs) for the coast. MPAs are an investment in the long term health of the oceans and California is the only state developing such an MPA network.

MPAs offer these special marine ecosystems protections similar to what we have on land (like underwater parks), and restore the ones that are hurting from overuse. Fish like yellow eye, canary, bocaccio and blue rockfish are over-fished in places like Saunders Reef; northern red abalone populations remain low and poaching is on the rise. Hot spots of biodiversity like Fitzgerald Marine Park in San Mateo have experienced steady and steep declines in landings over the past couple of decades.

Creating a proposal that works for a broad range of interests -- fishermen, divers, boaters and conservationists -- and that meets scientific standards is no easy task. Stakeholders also paid careful attention to economic analysis and listened to the needs of fishermen and local businesses and residents.

While the three proposals under consideration score almost the same on economics, they offer us very different legacies for the future. Proposal 4 includes kelp forests and rocky reefs along the Sonoma coast, granting 14 percent of the region the highest level of protection as marine reserves.

Proposal 1-3 is a carefully crafted compromise among many interests, avoiding local favorite fishing spots and protecting 12 percent of the coast. I've watched my friends and colleagues -- both fishermen and conservationists -- hard at work on these packages and I believe California deserves nothing less than protection included in the common ground MPA proposal 1-3.

The ocean is its own world, home to colorful rockfish, anemones and corals, and pods of whales. We are lucky to be able to visit and enjoy this world, as fishermen, wildlife watchers or beach-goers and we rely on it. It is a major economic engine for this state, but it's also so much more than that. More than six million people go outdoors just to photograph and appreciate California's wildlife each year, one million of whom are tourists who leave their dollars here on the Sonoma and Mendocino Coast.

California's coastal waters offer the sanctuary of solace and recreation not only for what you can take out of them, but also for what's left behind.

We have an opportunity to lead now and help avoid future crises. We have a chance to recognize the many voices that make California strong by choosing an MPA plan with broad support. Marine protected areas are only effective if they're strong enough, and California deserves a network that protects our most special places. The Blue Ribbon Task Force should recommend proposal 1-3 or 4 this week.

Don McEnhill is a Healdsburg resident and program director at Russian Riverkeeper.