Statewide Policy Issues:
Marine Life Protection Act:
In response to the decline of ocean health all along the California Current that runs from Alaska to Baja, the California legislature passed the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) in 1999.
The MLPA calls for the establishment of a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) along the California coast. The MLPA calls for three types of protected areas: marine reserves, marine parks and marine conservation areas. Marine reserves are no-take areas and the others allow different degrees of fishing.
The MLPA and two associated acts intend to comprehensively plan a network of marine protected areas from Oregon to Mexico that are designed using the best available science to achieve clear conservation-based goals and that are enforced, monitored and adaptively managed.
The MPLA is being implemented through a process called the MLPA Initiative. The Initiative is approaching the establishment of MPAs region by region. The Central Coast has been completed, the North Central Coast is near completion and the process is now focused on Southern California (Point Conception to Mexico).
Surfrider Foundation chapters are playing an important role in supporting the MLPA process, working cooperatively with fishers, and developing community support for local MPA sites.
Learn more at: http://www.surfrider.org/mlpa
To get involved contact:
North Central Coast: Sara Corbin: scorbin@surfrider.org
South Coast: Joe Geever: jgeever@surfrider.org
Integrated Water Resources:
Managing the water cycle holistically—from supply, to use, to disposal—is interwoven with many of our core campaigns: watershed restoration, coastal- and ocean- habitat protection and pollution prevention.
Unfortunately, current water management is a classic example of what the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission characterized as “fragmented governance.”
Narrowly-focused agencies' duties result in treating water like a nuisance. We force water off the land by: paving waterways in the name of flood control; filling coastal wetlands that could cleanse our streams and re- charge groundwater; and discharging re-usable fresh water from our wastewater facilities directly to the ocean. This wasteful history has led to chronic coastal pollution and dramatic degradation of our coastal ecology
Learn more at:
Making Waves article on Ingrated Water Resources
To get involved contact: Joe Geever: jgeever@surfrider.org
Rise Above Plastics:
Surfrider is currently engaged in an active program entitled “Rise Above Plastics,” with the mission to reduce the impacts of plastics in the marine environment by raising awareness about the dangers of plastic pollution and by advocating for a reduction of single-use plastics and the recycling of all plastics.
As a conservation organization, Surfrider Foundation is actively educating the public on how to live an “environmentally-friendly” lifestyle and asking that our members sign a plastics pledge to help reduce their personal consumption of single-use plastics by using reusable bags and water bottles.
Surfrider Foundation Chapters now put on various educational programs and advocate for government-led programs to reduce the prevalence of plastics, incentivize recycling and generally prevent plastics from destroying our oceans.
Learn more.
To get involved contact: Angela Howe: ahowe@surfrider.org
Ecosystem-based Management:
A leading recommendation of the Pew Ocean Commission and the US Commission on Ocean Policy was the need to apply ecosystem-based management (EBM) to protect and conserve our coastal ocean environment. Subsequently, the need for EBM has been emphasized by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative and the West Coast Governor's Agreement on Ocean Health. EBM has become the recommended paradigm for ocean and coastal conservation. The Surfrider Foundation is actively engaged in advancing EBM at the local level.
Learn more about EBM:
http://www.surfrider.org/ebm
http://www.compassonline.org/marinescience/solutions_ecosystem.asp
http://ims.ucsc.edu/CCEBM
To get involved contact: Pete Stauffer: pstauffer@surfrider.org
California Coastal Commission Conservation Vote Chart
The California Coastal Commission (CCC) Conservation Voting Chart is a joint enterprise of the California CoastKeeper Alliance, Coastal Protection Network (CPN), League for Coastal Protection(LCP), Sierra Club Coastal Programs and Surfrider Foundation. These voting charts have beenprepared for the last 21 years.The CCC voting chart for 2008 examines 28 separate votes. Votes analyzed were selected in consultation with coastal conservation activists based on their likely impact on coastal resources and their potential to set important statewide precedent. The CCC reviews approximately 1000 projects each year and approves the vast majority of them; this voting chart is designed to highlight only the most important votes, where the environmental stakes are high.
CCC Conservation Voting Chart for 2008, 2007 and 2006.
Learn more.
West Coast Governor's Agreement on Ocean Health
In 2006 the Governors of California, Oregon and Washington announced the West Coast Governors' Agreement on Ocean Health. The Agreement launched a new, proactive regional collaboration to protect and manage the ocean and coastal resources along the entire West Coast, as called for in the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission.
The Agreement seeks to advance the goals of:
Clean coastal waters and beaches;
Healthy ocean and coastal habitats;
Effective ecosystem-based management;
Reduced impacts of offshore development;
Increased ocean awareness and literacy among the region's citizens;
Expanded ocean and coastal scientific information, research, and monitoring; and
Sustainable economic development of coastal communities.
The Agreement also underscores the importance of managing activities that affect our oceans on an ecosystem basis. That is, managing human activities and their impact on ocean resources in a way that accounts for the relationships among all ecosystem components, including people and other species and the environment in which we all live.
Learn more.
To get more involved contact: Chad Nelsen: cnelsen@surfrider.org
Wave Energy:
Surfrider Foundation acknowledges the growing demand for energy worldwide and that our coasts and ocean may be considered as possible sites for energy generation using alternative, non-polluting technologies. The Surfrider Foundation will strive to support clean, renewable, low-impact sources of energy. Surfrider will work to ensure that energy generated from ocean resources meets the objectives of our policy statement and is consistent with our mission.
Read our policy on alternative ocean energy.
Keep up on wave energy issues here.
To get more involved contact: Chad Nelsen: cnelsen@surfrider.org
