Senator Dutton Asks DFG Director to Justify Support for MLPA Fiasco

Senator Dutton Asks DFG Director to Justify Support for MLPA Fiasco

by Dan Bacher

If Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative has done nothing else, it has united one of the most diverse coalitions of people ever assembled in California history against it.

The conflicts of interests, corporate greenwashing, cultural genocide and violation of state and federal laws that have occurred under the privately funded initiative have spurred people from a wide variety of political perspectives from left to criticize the unjust process. Those slamming the initiative have ranged from Earth First environmental activists to rednecks, from elders of California Indian Tribes to commercial fishermen, and from sustainable food activists to city councils up and down the North Coast.

Prominent Democrats including State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez of Shafter and Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro of Eureka and Green Party leaders such as former North Coast Congressman Dan Hamburg, now a candidate for the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino County, have challenged and questioned the inequities of the MLPA process.

Now Senate Republican Leader-elect Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga has joined the growing chorus of leading Democrats and Greens in their criticism of the MLPA. In a May 19 letter to DFG Director John McCamman, Dutton asked McCamman how he can justify the implementation of Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative at a time when the state is in dire economic crisis.

“It has come to my attention that the Legislative Analyst has recommended 'suspension of state support' to implement the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA),” said Dutton. “ Further, the LAO recognizes that there is no long-term comprehensive plan to finance enforcement or management of marine protected areas once established. The LAO cites existing state fishing statutes such as the Marine Life Management Act and traditional fishing restrictions that could be used to enforce fishing restrictions as an alternative to this proposal."

“While the MLPA may be cast as an 'ecosystem approach' to protecting the ocean environment, it appears, according to the California Attorney General, that the only thing that the MLPA can actually do is to restrict commercial and recreational fishing,” Dutton said.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, in a September 25, 2009 letter to the Assistant Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency clearly states on page 9 that "The State Water Resources Control Board maintains primary jurisdiction over water quality and pollution discharges." And, "[the MLPA ... does not grant DFG or DPR new powers to enforce water quality regulations within marine reserves."

After careful analysis, the LAO's conclusions therefore say, in summary, the following, according to Dutton.
1.The state does not have the resources to enforce the MLPA.
2. The state does not have the resources to manage and scientifically monitor the MLPA.
3. Current fishing statutes are working to protect California fisheries and, therefore, the MLPA is an unnecessary program.

“Given California's long-standing budget crisis where we face difficult cuts to health and safety programs, please justify for me why the Department should continue with implementation of the MLPA,” concluded Dutton. “As the Legislature is required to pass a balanced state budget by June 15,2010 please provide your response to me by June 1, 2010.”

Dutton joins a growing chorus of political leaders, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists and tribal leaders that have blasted the MLPA process. The MLPA Initiative is led by Ken Wiseman, executive director, and funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a shadowy organization headed by Mike Eaton, executive director.

Senator Dean Florez announced that he planned to conduct a Senate Oversight Hearing about conflict of interest and “mission creep” in the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process during his keynote address at the Coastside Fishing Club Dinner in San Mateo in March 2009. Unfortunately, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg squelched the investigation.

On July 10, 2009, Senator Wesley Chesbro stated that he had heard from numerous constituents who had expressed "strong concerns" regarding the development and implementation of MLPA plans for the North Coast and North Central Coast.

"Because of this strong constituent concern, I am skeptical of the process that has been followed in developing proposed plans for these regions,” said Chesbro. “The process must be based on sound science. I have been saying, 'show me the science.' So far I'm not satisfied with the answers I've been getting.”

As a state senator in 1999 who voted for the MLPA, Chesbro said it was his belief that "the MLPA will be a failure if the plans are implemented without the full involvement of all participants, especially local community members and stakeholders. The economic health of local fishing communities must be balanced with the need for habitat protection."

During the 37th annual California Fisheries Forum held by Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture at the State Capitol on April 28, Chesbro said he plans to hold a hearing on the MLPA Initiative this year.

Dan Hamburg, the Green Party candidate for the Mendocino Board of Supervisors, has also criticized the privatization of public trust resources that has occurred under the MLPA.

"We will work with Humboldt and Del Norte Counties to stop privatization efforts such as the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI) - a private-foundation takeover of marine life that threatens local coastal businesses that harvest the ocean for food," vowed Hamburg.

The MLPA, a landmark law passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, has been hijacked by oil industry, real estate, marine development and other corporate interests under the Schwarzenegger administration. Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative has openly violated numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

For more information about the violation of indigenous subsistence, cultural and religious rights under the MLPA, go to: http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/content.php?r=221 and Violet Wilder's facebook page, "KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES" (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105945012781743).