California reviews the state of the ocean

Sacramento, CA– Today, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) made its first public presentation of their recently released report examining the last 10 years of marine protected area management.

Ben Grundy, Conservation Associate, attended the commission meeting and provided public comment on the presentation.

“California’s unique network of 124 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) makes the state a global leader in protecting the critical habitats and life existing in and around our oceans. However, with a warming planet, rising sea level, and historic species extinctions, it is clear that California must strengthen and expand our existing network of protections with highly and fully protected MPAs” said Grundy.

“The adoption of more highly and fully protected marine areas is critical to protect our marine life from being harmed by destructive and extractive human activities and must be the standard for protecting 30% of our ocean by 2030.”

CDFW Director Chuck Bonham also expressed his thoughts on the report’s results:

“When you look across the whole document, to me, the case is made: it’s working” said Bonham. “There sure looks to be a lot of evidence that when you preserve places fish get bigger and there are more of them, and what’s not to like about that?”

Several UC Berkeley students with CALPIRG Students also attended the meeting and provided public comment:

“In just the past month, we have presented about MPAs to over 14,000 students in classes across the UC system, as well as had 10,000 individual conversations with students on campus” said Paige Lieblich, chapter chair of CALPIRG Students at UC Berkeley. “Talking to students, I have found that ocean protections are incredibly important to young people, and for so many different reasons. Everyone we have had conversations with on campus has been extremely supportive of increasing protections, and this is an issue that broadly appeals to a lot of different people.”

On March 16, the Fish and Game Commission’s Marine Resources Committee will meet in Monterey/Santa Cruz area to discuss the report’s findings in more detail and consider the recommendations proposed in CDFW’s report. Members of the public are invited to participate in the MPA Public Symposium happening on March 15, 2023 in the Monterey/Santa Cruz area. Registration for the event closes on February 15th.