California’s Ocean Protection Council has recommended the approval of new ocean conservation proposals to the California Fish and Game Commission, including the creation of a new Marine Protected Area (MPA) off the coast of Carpinteria.
Specifically, the supported proposals would strengthen and expand the state’s MPA network, which act as refuges for fish with restrictions against much human interference. The network is in the middle of its decadal review, prompting proposals to both ease and tighten restrictions.
Those same proposals were recommended for denial by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) earlier on in the process. But the California Fish and Game Commission has the final say. With support from the state’s Ocean Protection Council (OPC), a cabinet-level state body, proposals to strengthen and expand the network may carry more weight.
Among the OPC’s supported proposals is the contested creation of the tribally co-led Mishopshno Marine Protected Area in the coastal waters of Carpinteria. The proposal is named after an adjacent Chumash village where the Chumash built tomols. It would cover nine acres and prohibit the take of all living, geological, or cultural marine resources, except for the recreational take of finfish from shore using hook-and-line. Non-extractive activities such as swimming would also be allowed. According to Mishopshno’s supporters, the area supports a long rocky reef where marine life such as juvenile great white sharks thrive.
However, Carpinteria’s tight-knit fishing community opposes the new MPA. At a Fish and Game Commission meeting in May, they argued that the new restrictions would limit access to a beloved pastime and local food source. Fishermen throughout the review process have argued that their livelihoods are already over-restricted in California waters.
Environmentalists, on the other hand, argue that at a time when the federal government is reducing ocean protections (it reduced MPA-related protections from covering 26 percent of its waters to 0.01 percent), and climate change and kelp loss are threatening ocean ecosystems, California’s marine life can use all the help they can get.
Mishopshno offers California a chance to conserve a “distinct and incredibly special part of the Central Coast,” said Sandy Aylesworth, director of Pacific Ocean Initiative at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), a contributor to the proposal. By recommending that the commission vote yes on the proposal, “the Ocean Protection Council has shown its commitment to a healthy ocean into the future,” she said.
Still, the Ocean Protection Council’s recommendation is only that: a recommendation. The Fish and Game Commission will hold hearings on October 15 and 16, during which it will consider both agencies’ recommendations — the CDFW and the OPC — before voting on the 15 different MPA proposals that suggest either strengthening or weakening the state’s MPA network.
