Restoring Our North Coast: We Owe it to Future Generations

This time of the year, we turn our attention, and our beach towels, toward the subtle beauty and cooling fog of the North Coast. When it gets hot inland, it is time to head for the beach. As a young boy during the 1950’s, I was first plopped down in the tidepools here by my father as he went rockpicking along the shoreline at low tide for then-plentiful abalone. Since 1975, I have been lucky enough to call Bodega Bay home.

During that time, I have seen tragic declines in marine life and ocean health beneath our shimmering waters. The the number of fishing boats, fishing trips, and fishing revenues have each declined by about two-thirds over the past 18 years. For the most part, past rampant overfishing by big industrial nets is to blame, not local family fishermen or visiting sportfishers. However, we all suffer when ocean health declines. Clearly, something must be done to reverse the downward trends.

So in 1999, when California passed the Marine Life Protection Act, those of us who have spent our lives trying to save the coast rejoiced – finally a ray of hope. The premise is simple and the science is clear: if we simply leave some carefully-chosen areas of ocean alone, life will restore itself. Nature is resilient, and the ocean is its own most powerful healer.

Since 2008, I have been honored to serve on the North-Central Coast stakeholders’ negotiating panel for the Marine Life Protection Act. I worked with commercial and sport fishermen, party boat captains, abalone divers, surfers, native tribal entities, beachgoers, and state and national park representatives. We met in good faith for hundreds of hours over the course of a year, backed up by a team of scientific experts.

We traveled from Half Moon Bay to Point Arena to listen to and take to heart local concerns. And we responded – making changes to Marine Protected Area (MPA) boundaries and proposed management regulations to reduce any potential conflicts with existing uses. As a veteran of 35 years of coastal advocacy, I can attest that no public process in California’s history has been more transparent, accessible, and open to everyone -- ever.

Now, as the California Fish and Game Commission prepares to vote on a compromise coastal restoration plan, we suddenly find a small contingent of naysayers, funded by large amounts of mysterious overseas money, trying to sow fear and destroy the progress made to date by so many.

These naysayers are trying every excuse they can dream up. They argue for delay, citing the state budget situation, yet the MLPA has escaped the budget ax and many local and national groups have committed to help with management and monitoring.

The professional skeptics claim, “Oops, we somehow forgot and missed the numerous public meetings” -- even those held in their own local communities. They assert that the ocean is fine, pretend no action is needed, but consistently ignore compelling science and local experience to the contrary. They say fishermen will break the rules and poach in our underwater parks. But they offer no constructive solutions.

I would respectfully remind the naysayers: We cannot afford to ignore this one-time chance to restore local marine life, bring back our fisheries, rebuild declining coastal economies, and leave a positive legacy.

I trust the sportsmanlike ethic of those who love to fish and thus benefit from the public trust resources of our coast; I know most fishermen will respect the rules and follow the law; and I trust the California Fish and Game Commissioners to adopt the carefully crafted compromise MPA plan on August 5. I am counting on taking my two grandchildren fishing some day, and I’d like to tell the kids that we left them what we ourselves found here - - a living ocean legacy.