Darrell Ticehurst/Fisheries Issues
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MLPA and Environmentalism
Nov. 19 2009, 9:36 AM
Nov. 19 2009, 9:36 AM
MLPA and Environmentalism
We are finishing up the third phase of the implementation of the MLPA with two more areas targeted for the next two years to finish off the most unscrupulous implementation of a well intentioned act ever perpetrated on the California populace. I had bought into the grand vision for the MLPA: Create a sensible organized plan, a network of Marine Protected Areas, to protect the California Coastal waters for generations to come. Great idea I thought, let's preserve the bottom structure, provide a set of protections that insure that the marine ecosystem will stay healthy and productive. Make sure that we don't have our oceans become more polluted, overharvested, or physically despoiled. Who wouldn't like those ideas!
We are finishing up the third phase of the implementation of the MLPA with two more areas targeted for the next two years to finish off the most unscrupulous implementation of a well intentioned act ever perpetrated on the California populace. I had bought into the grand vision for the MLPA: Create a sensible organized plan, a network of Marine Protected Areas, to protect the California Coastal waters for generations to come. Great idea I thought, let's preserve the bottom structure, provide a set of protections that insure that the marine ecosystem will stay healthy and productive. Make sure that we don't have our oceans become more polluted, overharvested, or physically despoiled. Who wouldn't like those ideas!
I got worried when we saw the funding source for this, what with the reputations of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the Marisla foundation, who banded together as the RLFF to fund the implementation when the state legislators wouldn’t. It wasn’t long before my worst fears were realized. It became apparent that the RLFF strategy was to see how much real estate they could close to fishing, just how big a network of MPA’s they could get. No noble causes, no honest dialog about what would make the most sense for a given area, just a blind determination to fight as hard as they could for as much closure as they could get and the public be damned.
And fishing was their target, that became apparent when the first phase of the implementation closed more than half of the prime fishing areas and bankrupted the sportfishing infrastructure in that section of the coast. No major concerns about the economic impact of where closures were made, just a game, see how much area they could close to fishing, and just how much they could brag about “protecting” even if the science showed that the closures were unnecessary.
Then the second phase confirmed just how bad things were. RLFF scientists were introducing made up stories of how trolling for salmon could somehow impact bottom fish. There was no such science, but that didn’t stop them from using it until the pushback over the absurdity of what they were saying embarrassed them enough to back off. And that is only one example of the pseudo scientific basis they were using in their campaign to grab as much closure as they could. It didn’t matter that this was supposed to be a network of MPA’s for the people of California, these runaway environmentalism radicals saw it as a game: Let’s see how much we can get closed. Then when it looked like they might have overreached and their plan wouldn’t pass the smell test, they made sure it would go through by calling in political favors and getting Secretary of Resource Chrisman, no friend of the ocean or anyone who wants to enjoy it, to appoint, just before the vote, their hand-picked representative to the Fish and Game Commission.
Never was the process about what might make sense, it was about how much area could be “gotten”. And they controlled the funding and the funding controlled who was on the panels so the people of California lost. Going into the third phase in Southern California it was apparent that this was the game. The enviros had the funding, had the political backing of a wired Fish and Game Commission, and a firm ally in Chrisman, so the only question for ocean users, the kayakers, the divers, the recreational fishermen, the beachcombers and everyone else who enjoys the marine environment, was how bad it would be. Now despite great efforts on behalf of so many of these organizations the end result looks to be as bad as we could expect.
We aren’t going to get anywhere in this process, it is so obviously wired from start to finish in favor of some runaway enviros who think more in terms of “winning” rather than in terms of what is best for the public or for the environment. We have a Governor Schwarzenegger and a Secretary of Resources Chrisman who are clearly out to punch an “environmental ticket” and are willing to sell us all out to get that enviro blessing. Either the legislators step in and get this unholy process properly redone, or we are going to see much more economic harm from what started out as a benign law that offered hope for a sensible network of protected areas and instead has resulted in a set of closures that gives the enviros some bragging rights about how much they closed, but does much harm to all recreational use of the ocean, and is killing many jobs that depend upon sensible ocean access.
In my dreams I see a lawsuit that shows how terribly misused and misinterpreted this MLPA law is in being implemented. Surely a judge would agree that the process has gone so far astray from its intent, and the abuses during implementation are so egregious that it should be redone.
And fishing was their target, that became apparent when the first phase of the implementation closed more than half of the prime fishing areas and bankrupted the sportfishing infrastructure in that section of the coast. No major concerns about the economic impact of where closures were made, just a game, see how much area they could close to fishing, and just how much they could brag about “protecting” even if the science showed that the closures were unnecessary.
Then the second phase confirmed just how bad things were. RLFF scientists were introducing made up stories of how trolling for salmon could somehow impact bottom fish. There was no such science, but that didn’t stop them from using it until the pushback over the absurdity of what they were saying embarrassed them enough to back off. And that is only one example of the pseudo scientific basis they were using in their campaign to grab as much closure as they could. It didn’t matter that this was supposed to be a network of MPA’s for the people of California, these runaway environmentalism radicals saw it as a game: Let’s see how much we can get closed. Then when it looked like they might have overreached and their plan wouldn’t pass the smell test, they made sure it would go through by calling in political favors and getting Secretary of Resource Chrisman, no friend of the ocean or anyone who wants to enjoy it, to appoint, just before the vote, their hand-picked representative to the Fish and Game Commission.
Never was the process about what might make sense, it was about how much area could be “gotten”. And they controlled the funding and the funding controlled who was on the panels so the people of California lost. Going into the third phase in Southern California it was apparent that this was the game. The enviros had the funding, had the political backing of a wired Fish and Game Commission, and a firm ally in Chrisman, so the only question for ocean users, the kayakers, the divers, the recreational fishermen, the beachcombers and everyone else who enjoys the marine environment, was how bad it would be. Now despite great efforts on behalf of so many of these organizations the end result looks to be as bad as we could expect.
We aren’t going to get anywhere in this process, it is so obviously wired from start to finish in favor of some runaway enviros who think more in terms of “winning” rather than in terms of what is best for the public or for the environment. We have a Governor Schwarzenegger and a Secretary of Resources Chrisman who are clearly out to punch an “environmental ticket” and are willing to sell us all out to get that enviro blessing. Either the legislators step in and get this unholy process properly redone, or we are going to see much more economic harm from what started out as a benign law that offered hope for a sensible network of protected areas and instead has resulted in a set of closures that gives the enviros some bragging rights about how much they closed, but does much harm to all recreational use of the ocean, and is killing many jobs that depend upon sensible ocean access.
In my dreams I see a lawsuit that shows how terribly misused and misinterpreted this MLPA law is in being implemented. Surely a judge would agree that the process has gone so far astray from its intent, and the abuses during implementation are so egregious that it should be redone.
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