Time for real protection
Real environmentalists support true, comprehensive ocean protection as the MLPA originally intended, not the facade of protection that Schwarzenegger’s MLPA Initiative provides.
Real environmentalists don’t support a process that has gone to great lengths to take oil drilling, water pollution, wave energy development, habitat destruction, military testing and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table in its perverse concept of marine “protection.”
Finally, real environmentalists oppose the privatization of ocean conservation that has occurred under the MLPA Initiative.
The MLPA process must be seen in the context of the campaign by the Schwarzenegger administration, corporate media, some NGOs and political hacks to greenwash the environmental legacy of the worst Governor in California history for fish, water and the environment. This is the same Governor who presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish species, relentlessly campaigned for the construction of an environmentally destructive and enormously expensive peripheral canal and new dams and vetoed numerous laws protecting fish, water and the environment.
Governor Brown has a chance now to do the right thing – cancel or suspend the MLPA Initiative and to conduct an investigation of the conflicts of interest, corruption and violations of state, federal and international laws that have occurred under the MLPA Initiative. Will Brown listen to the many criticisms of the MLPA by Indian Tribes, fishermen and grassroots environmentalists – or will he continue the failed ocean policies of the Schwarzenegger regime?
- Why Is A Big Oil Lobbyist In Charge Of California’s Marine Protection Program?
- Can California Get Smart on Water Use?
Dan Bacher is the Editor of the Fish Sniffer online and print magazine. He blogs at Sacramento for Democracy, Alternet and DailyKos.
(California Coast picture 
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