Background on the MLPA Initiative:
The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) is a law, signed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, designed to create a network of marine protected areas off the California Coast. However, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 created the privately-funded MLPA “Initiative” to “implement” the law, effectively eviscerating the MLPA.
The “marine protected areas” created under the MLPA Initiative fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, water pollution, military testing, wave and wind energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces that oversaw the implementation of “marine protected areas” included a big oil lobbyist, marina developer, real estate executive and other individuals with numerous conflicts of interest. Catherine Reheis Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association who is pushing for new oil drilling off the California coast, served as the chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.
The MLPA Initiative operated through a controversial private/public “partnership funded by the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The Schwarzenegger administration, under intense criticism by grassroots environmentalists, fishermen and Tribal members, authorized the implementation of marine protected areas under the initiative through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the foundation and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).
Tribal members, fishermen, grassroots environmentalists, human rights advocates and civil liberties activists have slammed the MLPA Initiative for the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws. Critics charge that the initiative, privatized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004, has violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act, Brown Act, California Administrative Procedures Act, American Indian Religious Freedom Act and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Like what you read? Like us on Facebook for more updates!
More on oceans, fishing, and California’s troubled waters:
- Instead of protecting fish, California continues to kill them by the thousands
- California kills 2 million fish in 3 days
- State officials misinformed California anglers on ocean closures
- Has Southern California restricted fishing? It depends on who you ask…
- Bechtel family wades into California’s water wars
- Why Is A Big Oil Lobbyist In Charge Of California’s Marine Protection Program?
- Can California Get Smart on Water Use?
- Overfishing – We’re On the Brink
Dan Bacher is the Editor of the Fish Sniffer online and print magazine. He blogs at Sacramento for Democracy, Alternet and DailyKos.
(Photo of the Red Bluff diversion dam on the Sacramento River 
Some rights reserved by Rockinelle)
[...] Source: While some governments and environmental NGOs have pushed marine protected areas in the U.S. and throughout the world as the solution to protecting the ocean and maintaining biodiversity in marine ecosystems, a United Nations study released on July 28 said continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as protected areas is “insufficient” to stem global biodiversity loss. [...]