Aliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries
P O Box 1309, Carmel Valley, CA 93924 (831) 659-2838

May 23, 2003

Dear Alliance Members:

Please find enclosed a notice from the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary about a meeting that they propose to have on Saturday, June 7th. We strongly encourage you to attend this meeting to learn what the Sanctuary is doing, and to voice your opinions very clearly to Sanctuary officials.

The topics for the meeting are generally the areas in which the Sanctuary has been working as part of their update of the management plan that might affect fishing. It’s important to note that probably the most important topic is missing from their proposed agenda – that topic is the promise made to the fishing community that the Sanctuary would not negatively affect us, and would not create regulations or another regulating agency for us to have to worry about. As part of the Management Plan Review the Sanctuary Program was requested to clarify the Management Plan to make it even clearer, that they would not be involved in fishery management issues, including no fishing zones. However, thus far, the only thing that has immerged from the Sanctuary Program is the policy paper issued by the National Headquarters office that you will also find enclosed.

Again, we think it is very important that you spend some time talking with the Sanctuary folks to make sure they understand what you think about these issues. They have been hearing from the Alliance and Alliance board members over the last two years, and its now important for them to hear from people who fish throughout the Sanctuary area.

If you want additional background as to Sanctuary/fishing issues, please do not hesitate to contact anyone of the board members who are listed below. We look forward to seeing you at this meeting.

Sincerely,

Mike Ricketts, Co-Chair, ACSF, 831-659-2838

Kathy Fosmark, Co-Chair, ACSF, 831-373-5238

Board Members:
Tom Canale 831-426-3640
Duncan MacLean 650-726-1373
Roxanne Jordan 707-887-8772