Santa Cruz, CA - AWPAC
On November 6-7, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Marine Resources Committee is scheduled to receive and discuss Department Bin 1 petitions evaluation and draft recommendations.
The Department will give a presentation to serve as a roadmap for the meeting regarding the Bin 1 evaluation and draft recommendations, and the next phases of the evaluation framework. This 'roadmap' follows a newly proposed review process and extends far outside of established processes for MPA review.
Matt Bond, Board member and AWPAC Spokesperson stated, "This is a big meeting in our effort to address serious concerns that the process being used to review these MPA petitions is not following the guidelines adopted by the commission in 2008 and 2016." The MRC has moved the MPA review process outside of the pre-established MPA master plan from 2008 and later updated in 2016. "Bringing attention to these important meetings and the many efforts to keep all waters open is critical to our mission as an organization and community."
Following its introductory presentation, the Department will then walk through the
individual draft recommendations for each Bin 1 MPA petition action, categorized into four groups based on the type of action:
• Non-regulatory
• Allowable uses
• Classification/take
• Boundaries
The MRC will reconvene at the scheduled December 11-12 meeting to review any revisions from the November 6 meeting and move to Bin 2 proposals and recommendations. Check back here for updates on upcoming meetings/events.
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