Marine Protected Area debate heating up

Fishermen planning protest on Tuesday

A state-sponsored effort to create marine protected areas has moved to the North Coast, prompting critics to ask whether one size fits all when it comes to shoreline habitat preservation.

Implementation of the Marine Life Protection Act has been completed in three of the five zones the state was divided into.

It has been harshly criticized by a  variety of opponents, and the fight is heating up.

A group of local fishermen are meeting at 4 p.m. Sunday under the American flag in the Crescent City harbor to plan their participation in a protest rally for the next MLPA Initiative workshop, scheduled for Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Eureka at the Red Lion Hotel, 1929 Fourth St.

The MLPA Initiative has been tasked with establishing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) all along California’s coastline to protect ocean resources.

The North Coast is the fourth of five regions to undergo the process.

Three types of MPAs could be established here. From least restrictive to most, they include marine conservation areas, marine parks, and marine reserves (which would be no-take areas).

The backlash to the MPA process has inspired  an unusual coalition of the fishing industry, subsistence harvesters and some marine scientists who oppose the process for a variety of reasons.

Some critics say the North Coast’s fisheries are already heavily regulated, and they note the ruggedness of the coastline makes many areas off-limits to human interference anyway. They fear any new regulations will be based on scientific information that pertains to other areas but not the North Coast.

Supporters of the MPA process say it’s designed to protect whole habitats, not just individual fisheries. They also contend that the process recognizes different conditions present in each coastal zone.

“We have some of the healthiest fisheries in California,” said local fishermen Kenyon Hensel. “The fact is that our North Coast has some areas which are so hazardous, either due to weather and ocean conditions or rocks, that they form natural MPAs.”

Added to the unique nature of the region, with its rocky coast and strong currents and upwellings, are claims that the science used to form MPAs is flawed or biased.

Jim Waldvogel, a fisheries biologist with the UC Seagrant Extension Office in Crescent City, has reservations about the MPA process, but he doesn’t believe the science supporting MPAs is flawed.

“There is a ton of good peer-reviewed science on MPAs,” Waldvogel said. “I don’t question the science behind the process, it’s how it’s being used or interpreted. The question is, is it applicable?”

According to Waldvogel, much of the data about marine areas is taken in temperate waters with larger amounts of fishing than the North Coast.

One of the reasons that Waldvogel questions whether the data is applicable goes back to the claim that the North Coast is unique.

“We have a really hard marine environment to categorize simply,” Waldvogel said. “Whether it’s the currents, huge upwellings or large variation in marine habitats, any approach to habitat protection has to be based upon the specific habitat.” 

Satie Airame, a researcher with the University of California, Santa Barbara, answers Waldvogel’s question of whether the data is applicable with a resounding “yes,” while agreeing the area was unique.

Airame is not only directly involved with the process, but also has many years’ experience researching MPAs and their effects on marine ecosystems.

“This process is very specific in relation to the coast of California,” Airame said. “This is why we split the coast into the different sections. Ultimately the MPAs are designed to implement the goals of the Marine Life Protection Act, and those broad goals are achieved through research into the specific marine ecosystems of each section.”

The Master Plan for Marine Protected Areas, the planning document that the process is based upon, focuses on key habitats and the life cycles of specific species.

A fundamental part of the process is forming a map of the North Coast, which should be released soon and then updated through the end of the year.

The map will be available on-line at Marinemap.org/MLPA.

“We assemble all the data we can on the region, from sonar mapping of the ocean floor to shoreline characterization,” Airame said. “It’s designed as an overlay and you can zoom in and out of a given data set.”

“It’s quite a bit of data, a really amazing resource. This way you could draw a proposed MPA on the map and then see what’s in there.”

Waldvogel also questioned whether the process was necessary because of local fishery management tools that are already in use.

“You could look at the Klamath Management Zone and rockfish closures as really like two big MPAs,” Waldvogel said.

Airame disagrees.

“The goal of the MLPA Initiative is to protect habitats, not manage, control or maintain or even enhance particular fisheries,” Airame said. “We are focusing on ecosystems, and while it’s not related, it is complimentary to fishery management.”

So how does one go about protecting habitats in such a diverse environment?

The MPA master plan has guidelines that make this process easier by focusing on specific habitats, and general species requirements.

While Airame agrees that the area is unique, she contends many North Coast species show the same patterns of dispersal as in other regions, so general principles do apply.

Two of those principles are basic MPA size requirements and the maximum distance between each protected area.

“Each protected area has to be a minimum of 9 square miles, and they can be no more than 30 to 60 miles apart,” Airame said.

“The size is designed to protect an individual adult through its life cycle to allow it to breed,” Airame said.

“The greater the size, the more species you protect. The spacing is dictated by larval patterns; a good system of protected areas would give the larvae opportunity to move out of one, and land in an adjacent protected area.”

While much of the data from MPAs worldwide show that the most dramatic increases in size, population density and diversity occur in marine reserves, Airame says that there is no trend to create the most restrictive reserves possible.

Instead, she said the process seeks to find a balance between conservation and use patterns.

As part of its public outreach, the MLPA Initiative is hosting a workshop in Eureka that will be available in Crescent City by teleconference and “webinar,” an interactive Web-based seminar.

The workshop is intended to help educate the public about the North Coast MPA planning process.

  The workshop will be available in Crescent City at the Best Western Northwoods Inn, 655 U.S. Hwy. 101 S, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Coming up

Fishermen meet at Crescent City harbor Sunday at 4 p.m. to plan a Tuesday protest in Eureka.

The MLPA Initiative hosts a workshop Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Eureka at the Red Lion Hotel, 1929 Fourth St. People can also participate in the meeting through an interactive Web link that will be set up in Crescent City at the Best Western Northwoods Inn, 655 U.S. Hwy. 101 S.