Background on the Marine Life Protection Act,
MLPA Initiative and Scientific Peer Review

• was enacted in 1999. It directs the Fish & Game Commission to re-examine and redesign the State's system of marine protected areas (MPAs), and to adopt an MPA network. The new network's purpose: to protect the diversity of marine ecosystems and to help sustain and protect species populations.



• says that MPAs and sound fishery management are complementary components in sustaining marine habitats and fish species.



• seeks to designate marine protected areas in which all human activities that may disturb the marine environment would be restricted.



• does not specify the size or location of protected areas, what species need additional protections or how much protection is necessary in order to meet its general goals; it says these factors are to be determined by the "best readily available science."

• began in August 2004 with approximately $7 million in private funds and $1.2 million in public funds—a mix that resulted from a public-private MOU, which set an arbitrary deadline for adopting a Central Coast network prior to the November election.



• constitutes a third attempt at implementing the MLPA. It involves:



• A Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) composed of non-state officials. Its job: to oversee private contract staff working on the Act's implementation, including the process of public stakeholder input.



• A Science Advisory Team (SAT). Its job: to identify the best readily available science necessary for making the key decisions in designating and managing MPAs.



• includes these ongoing elements:



• The BRTF has submitted to the Department of Fish & Game three alternative networks of MPAs for the Central Coast study area—a stretch of coast from Point Conception (just up the coast from Santa Barbara) north to Pigeon Point (just above Santa Cruz).



• DFG will submit its recommendationssubmit its recommendations and a preferred alternative network proposal to the Fish & Game Commission on June 22.



• State law authorizes the Commission to adopt, modify or abolish marine protected areas at any time. The MLPA (Sec. 2861) also authorizes the Commission to abbreviate the MLPA master plan process to account for existing activities that have taken place before enactment and are consistent with the MLPA—like California's existing nearshore fisheries regulations.



• The FGC is now being encouraged by the Administration to adopt a network of Central Coast MPAs by November.



• Additional information regarding the Initiative is available at www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mlpa.

• The MLPA science advice guiding the MLPA Initiative:



• failed to consider marine impacts from sources other than fishing (like climatic variation, non-point source pollution and coastal development), and therefore relies on new fishing restrictions to meet conservation goals.



• failed to consider the benefits of existing fishery-management rules to the marine environment.



• assumes that existing fishery protections are nonexistent or ineffective in keeping ecosystems healthy and sustaining species populations.



• failed to consider that an expansive network of MPAs would have a seriously detrimental impact on Central Coast economies, including hundreds of businesses and thousands of individuals.

• The assumptions and guidelines produced by the Science Advisory Team are flawed; therefore, any MPA network developed using those guidelines would offer only the illusion of additional protection for marine resources. The MLPA science advice failed to meet two central requirements of the Act:



• MPAs and fishery management must be "complementary components" of efforts at marine protection



• the "best readily available science" must be used in designing MPAs



• The three MPA proposals submitted to the DFG provide similar ecosystem and resource protections, but with significantly different costs.



• The network alternatives under consideration, with the exception of Proposal 1, are redundant to protections already in place.



• The health of marine ecosystems largely depends on species that are too mobile to be protected by MPAs; these species can only be effectively protected by the fishing rules that have proven their worth in rebuilding and maintaining healthy fish stocks off California's coast.