The Special Places campaign is the Surfrider Foundation’s newest
initiative in its ongoing effort to protect and preserve our
world’s oceans, waves and beaches. This campaign seeks to identify
and designate unique or environmentally imperiled areas, what
we term “special places”, and secure heightened protection for
them. Some areas will be established for special water quality
regulations, others to protect the sport of surfing, some to
restrict commercial fishing, and still others where all extractive
uses will be prohibited.
While the Surfrider Foundation’s Special Places campaign is new,
the practice of establishing protected areas is not. Many cultures,
some dating as far back as the ancient Polynesians, have a history
of setting aside small areas along their coastlines or oceans
to protect or preserve precious natural resources. In California,
people have been advocating for special place-based protections
since the early 1900s when the fishing industry was experiencing
dramatic improvements in technology.
Recently, news agencies have published alarming reports indicating
a dramatic decline of marine life taking place in our oceans.
Many scientists are estimating that as much as 90% of the large
predatory fish species have been wiped out. Other research indicates
that as much as 80% of coral in the Caribbean has been lost.
While these reports may come as a shock to the general population,
it merely confirms what many “watermen” and other ocean enthusiasts
have suspected for a long time; years of over-harvesting fish
stocks and other detrimental practices, such as wasteful by-catch,
combined with the increasing effects of marine pollution, are
proving profoundly damaging to our ocean environments.
While nearly all marine experts agree that our ocean and coastal
environments are threatened, developing a consensus on what to
do to address the problem has been difficult.
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Many
environmental groups, including the Surfrider Foundation,
advocate for the creation of a national system of Marine
Reserves and Marine Protected Areas, or MPA’s. These MPA’s would function similarly to federal wilderness areas on landareas in which motorized vehicle traffic, such as boats and personal water crafts, may be limited. Additionally, these areas might be designated “no take” zones, meaning that fish or other sea life may not be harvested or removed from the area.
“There is a strong consensus in the scientific community that marine reserves will work to protect healthy ecosystems and aid in restoring those that have been diminished,” says Chad Nelsen, Surfrider Foundation’s Environmental Director. “There is also some convincing evidence that MPA’s have the potential to improve sustainable yields from our fisheries over time.”
The issue of how Surfrider Foundation’s Special Places campaign and the MPA movement may effect such activities as fishing is an important one. In a recent Surfrider Foundation member survey, over 30% of respondents identified themselves as recreational fishermen. In fact, in a recent online poll, fishing was determined to be the fourth most popular recreational activity amongst Surfrider Foundation members (behind surfing, body surfing and swimming)
Joe Geever, 50, spent much of his adult life as a commercial fisherman. Now, as the Surfrider Foundation’s Southern California Regional Manager, Geever spends much of his time working and interacting with both chapter activists and other advocacy groups.
“The Surfrider Foundation has many members who fish either for fun or for a living,” says Geever. “We are neither ‘radical environmentalists’ nor do we stick our heads in the sand and shy away from issues because they are controversial. We are recognized in the conservation community for basing our advocacy on sound science, yet balancing our policy objectives with a ‘user group’ perspective. Our membership would prefer we engage in this process and represent our interests and perspective than sit on the sidelines and accept unforeseen results.”
To help his California activists better understand how to become involved in Surfrider Foundation’s Special Places campaign, Geever has written a “how-to” book, entitled “Operator Manual for California’s Marine Life Protection Act.” The book helps activists to both understand the various problems facing healthy marine ecosystems and the framework of tools they have to help resolve these problems.
“I think that initiatives like this (the MLPA manual) are a critical part in working to get this campaign off the ground,” says Nelsen. “Our eventual goal is to establish a system of reserves and protected areas that provide a balanced approach to sustaining marine environments, where ecosystems, water quality and marine recreation could be proactively and permanently protected. Through our Special Places campaign, the Surfrider Foundation will ensure that support for this process occurs from the bottom up and reflects all the stakeholders in the community.”
To find out more about the Surfrider Foundation’s Special Places campaign, log
on to our website at http://www.surfrider.org.
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