Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries
256 Figueroa Street #1, Monterey, CA 93940
(831) 373-5238
www.alliancefisheries.com

 

February 14, 2007 

Dr. Holly Price
 Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
 299 Foam Street
Monterey, CA 93940 

Subject:  Structure and Function of the Special MPA Workgroup

Dear Holly,

The six members of the Sanctuary’s MPA Workgroup who are signing below, and who also signed the February 2, 2007 letter to you, want to express both our appreciation to you, for discussing some of our concerns about the structure and function of the MBNMS MPA workgroup.   At the same time, we also want you to know that if anything, our concerns about this workgroup are deepening.

We fully recognize that nearly the full meeting time on February 8th was dedicated to reviewing some of the issues that we outlined in our February 2nd letter.  Additionally, we began discussing the question of the need for additional MPAs, if any, within this Sanctuary Region.  As you know, we have been asking for this discussion for literally years.  We appreciate the time devoted to this.

At the same time, a number of our concerns remain, and/or have even deepened as a result of the February 8th meeting.  First, let us note that although many of our concerns were discussed, very little was resolved.  Briefly, to recount our issues: 

·         We no longer support the MPA Action Plan.  This is primarily because of your actions on behalf of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary during the State’s MLPA process.  It was clear in this State process that even the Sanctuary does not support its own Action Plan, because it didn’t follow the scientific or community based process outlined in the Plan when it made recommendations to the State. 

·         There appears to be nothing really resolved about the makeup of the Work Group; in particular, we still want to direct your attention to the idea of an adaptive management workshop under the general guidelines that we provided.  Certainly it would be open to discussion, and someone who is experienced in these types of workshops should provide expert advice as to how it is made up and how it operates.  I believe that Dr. Josh Korman is an expert on this, having done a similar process for a resource management issue in the Grand Canyon, among others.

·         We never resolved the issue that the Sanctuary is a stakeholder in this process, yet is also in charge of this process.  It seems to be incompatible for a fair process, and particularly to answering the question of the need for additional MPAs, if any.

Our concern about the science meeting that was held at the Southwest Fisheries Lab has deepened.  We acknowledge that it was not a secret meeting, in the sense that you notified Workgroup Members who were present at a meeting which fishermen missed.  However, from all indications, the directive given to this science team was to come up with some kind of a network of MPAs that are connected biologically, and that include a wide range of habitats.  This kind of direction only furthers our concern that despite assurances

CONTINUED