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SUPPORT Marine Protected Areas

Southern California’s coast and ocean are famous the world over, and they’re an economic and environmental powerhouse for the state. We need your help to protect the beauty and bounty of our sea! The Marine Life Protection Act is our chance to safeguard south coast waters so future generations can swim, surf, dive, and fish in a healthy and productive ocean. Please support science-based ocean protection by sending a letter to the California Fish and Game Commission to let them know that a compromise plan that will set aside key places like La Jolla, Naples Reef, and Point Dume as underwater parks while leaving more than 90% of the coastline open for fishing is the bare minimum required to keep our ocean healthy and productive for generations to come.

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September 2, 2010

California Fish and Game Commission
1416 Ninth Street
P.O. Box 944209
Sacramento, CA 94244-2090

Dear Fish and Game Commissioners: Thank you for your hard work creating a network of science based marine protected areas on California's coast. The Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force voted unanimously on November 10th to recommend a compromise network of MPAs for Southern California. Designed to balance the needs of ocean users and sea life, the BRTF compromise proposal leaves nearly 90 percent of coastal waters in the region open for fishing under existing regulations, including popular areas like Rocky Point, north La Jolla, and the Point Loma kelp beds. The BRTF’s proposal is the bare minimum required to keep our ocean healthy and productive. Though it includes protections for some of the south coast’s offshore treasures, it would place less than 10% of southern California's coast in State Marine Reserves – less than the north central coast network, while the pressures on this region’s natural resources are even greater. I realize that the BRTF did the best they could to meet the science, while minimizing socioeconomic impacts in several very tough geographic regions, but the protections are not enough in some areas and we are not meeting the science as outlined by the goals of the Act. With well over 20 million people - and counting - southern California's ocean faces significant threats that will only grow greater in the years ahead. To ensure this booming population can continue to work, play, and fish in a healthy and productive ocean, we have to protect biological hotspots like Naples Reef, Point Dume, south La Jolla, and Laguna with a network of adequately sized marine reserves such as those proposed in Map 3. Please approve the Regional Stakeholder Group’s Map 3 without compromising the size or strength of the proposed protected areas – southern California cannot afford anything less.

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