Tuesday, November 12 - Santa Cruz, CA - AWPAC
On November 6, the California Fish and Game Commission's Marine Resources Committee (MRC) met in Sacramento to review and discuss the Bin 1 petitions and draft MPA proposals. There was a large number of attendees including community members and advocates, recreational and commercial fishermen as well as fisheries scientists and management organizations.
There were three items on the agenda. The first was to review the Bin 1 proposals and draft recommendations. These have been in review but this meeting unveiled the process the department of fish and wildlife will use to make recommendations on the petitions to the MRC for the bin one petitions. As stated in our last release, it didn’t seem to us that the department and commission were following the established MPA master plan from 2008 and updated in 2016. All Waters can now confirm the proposed process is thorough and we fully support moving forward. The second agenda item was to discuss the proposed process for the more complex Bin 2 proposals. Lastly, the MRC opened up to comment for any support, discussion or concerns for individual petitions.
Many scientists and advocates joined or called into the meeting to discuss proposals and raise any additional concerns or questions before the MRC moves to Bin 2 proposals in December. Recently, the CDF&W completed the 10-year review of the MLPA network up and down the California coast. Ray Hilborn, PhD, Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, was able to call into the meeting. "The MLPA 10-year review and the papers by the review teams made it clear that there were actually few if any ecological developed benefits from the existing network. The science of the impact and changes to the network is very much under debate." He recently had en op-ed published outlining his continued work with the departments review of the MLPA process and impact on California coastal wildlife.
"At the time of the MLPA planning, several of us on the science advisory team advocated using spacial population dynamics models to evaluate the consequences of the proposed network but it was not accepted at the time. I strongly urge that kind of modeling be used to evaluate any proposed changes."
Ray's participation in these meetings shows the depth in which all are invested to see a successful outcome following the MPA reviews and proposed updates. "As an author of the first paper on adaptive management in fisheries, and a co-author of Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management, I would love to find a forum to examine the MLPA from an adaptive management perspective." Ray is one of the forefathers of fisheries management in California. "Given that the essence of Adaptive management is learning from experience -- that is to monitor, evaluate, and revise management actions. One of the obvious adaptive management proposals could be to de-list MPAs that have shown little if any increase inside the closed area. There wouldn't be any proposals like that on the table would there?" We hope the MRC will take Rays comments into consideration and we thank him for his decades of dedication and commitment to our waters.
The CDF&W and the MRC have been working tirelessly on the Bin 1 proposals and have established a thorough process in which All Waters fully supports. They have expressed the urgency they've placed on both Bin 1 and 2 petitions as well as the 27 other items being pushed aside to focus on this meaningful work. All waters thanks all who attended to collaborate across fishermen, departments and scientists to create a vetted, thorough and transparent process as we move to the next full commission meeting in December.
All waters remains confident the California Fish and Game Commission, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Marine Resources Committee will continue to strive for inclusive process to all parties impacted and have received all questions and concerns with the upmost importance. If these meetings are any indication as to what's to come, we are confident and hopeful in a successful outcome for Fisherman, ocean advocates and all Californians alike.
Ray Hilborn is a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington and served on the Science Advisory Team during MLPA planning for Santa Barbara reserves. He has been awarded the World Fisheries Science Prize and the Volvo Environmental Prize.
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