Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the Marine Life Protection Act

On December 15, 2010, the State of California Fish & Game Commission made history, adopting a network of "underwater state parks" known as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in line with the Marine Life Protection Act the State of California passed ten years before. This is a historic legal predecent for protection of marine species, and a considerable victory for Baykeeper and our partners.

Santa Monica Baykeeper's Marine Program worked for years to help ensure that this network was as large and as meaningful as possible, engaging the public, working with marine scientists, and presenting at community groups and to the Fish and Game Commission. We also worked intensively with LightHawk, a partner organization, to take to the skies and monitor marine traffic to help decision-makers verify current use of marine resources.

Baykeeper is tremendously grateful to Commissioners Mike Sutton, Richard Rogers, and Jack Baylis, who voted to adopt the MPAs with only slight modification. We also thank our volunteers and our partners at LightHawk, Heal the Bay, and other organizations that helped "keep the fires burning" and made this historic victory possible.

Resources

• The marine use aerial survey developed by Santa Monica Baykeeper through our partnership with LightHawk (see below).
• The Department of Fish and Game has a trove of resources on the MPAs, including the hard-fought map of underwater parks for Southern California.
• For more information about the process, please feel free to review our dedicated Facebook page.
• Los Angeles Times article from December 16, 2010.

Study: Marine Protections for SoCal Won’t Hurt Fishing
Santa Monica Baykeeper partnered with LightHawk to map boat activity between the Tijuana Border and Point Conception in Santa Barbara County. Our study helps to track how and where different uses like fishing and diving occur off our coast, so that protected areas could be designed to maximize benefits and minimize short-term economic impacts.

We are grateful to our colleagues at LightHawk for their aerial support of this work.

Click Here for details on the aerial survey method.

Click Here to view and research this data yourself and to see maps of areas proposed for protection.

Additional Reading on MPAs and the MLPA

On Wednesday, December 15, Santa Monica Baykeeper and other environmental groups, fishing interests,scientists, and others appeared at the final California Fish & Game Commission hearings on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). By the end of the day, the commission had formalized an MPA network begun 10 years ago when the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) first became law. The Commission decided on a comprehensiveMPA plan for Southern California, creating underwater parks at such crucial spots as Naples Reef, Point Dume, Palos Verdes, Laguna Beach, and La Jolla. The Commissioners' task was to approve or disapprove the entire network of MPAs created in December 2009 by the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for Southern California, which attempted to balance the needs of marine life with economic dependence on our valuable natural resources. It was a close decision, passing on a 3-to-2 vote. Special thanks to Commissioners Mike Sutton, Richard Rogers, and Jack Baylis for voting to adopt the MPAs with only slight modification.

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a visionary law that protects important ocean habitats to ensuresustainable fish populations, and thriving marine ecosystems, for current and future generations. Our country began setting aside special areas on land over 150 years ago, with the establishment of the first the National Parks, and it’s time to extend those protections to our ocean.  A network of marine protected areas preserves the best parts of California’s coastal ocean—iconic areas like Rocky Point and Point Dume—while leaving the vast majority open for fishing. Marine reserves and protected areas are a proven tool to help restore the severely depleted fish populations and ocean health of southern California.

In the past 50 years, the numbers and sizes of fish living in our coastal waters have dramatically declined.

• 80% of southern California’s kelp forests have been lost;
• Giant black sea bass, many species of rockfish, and abalone are now endangered;
• In Los Angeles County, commercial fishing revenue has dropped by half over the past 18 years.

Marine Protected Areas Work!

Scientists have shown that marine protected areas help restore depleted fish and wildlife populations. In fully protected marine reserves, scientists have found that fish grow more abundant, bigger, and more productive.  Marine reserves support biodiversity and resilience, and help seed surrounding waters with young fish and shellfish.

Five years of scientific monitoring from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Channel Islands demonstrate significant recovery of ocean habitats, fish populations and benefits to fishing. See the study, "Northern Channel Islands ecological and socioeconomic 5-year report:"

Hundreds of Marine Protected Areas have been established worldwide since the 1960s to rebuild fish populations and restore ocean habitats. These protected areas are good for sea life and for people-- fishermen, divers, and other ocean users benefit from the renewed abundance. In many places, fishermen have seen increases in catches and profits, and have become their strongest supporters.