|
 To
get involved with the California Special Places Campaign,
contact Joe Geever of the Surfrider Foundation at:
email: jgeever@surfrider.org
tel. 949-492-8170
For
a thorough understanding of how marine protected areas are
defined and designated in California, please review The Owner/Operator
Manual for California's Marine Life Protection Act. Then
contact Joe Geever and/or go to your local chapter meeting
to learn more.
There are 20 Surfrider Foundation chapters located all along
the California coast. All of these local chapters are powered
by volunteers like yourself. For a list of the California
Surfrider Chapters, along with contact info and website links,
go to the Surfrider
Chapters Web page.
TAKE
ACTION!
Please check the Action Network website for current advocacy
campaigns in your area.
 What
is the MLPA?
The Marine Life Protection Act was introduced in February
of 1999, and chaptered in October of 1999. The purpose is
"to improve the array of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) existing
in California waters through the adoption of a Marine Life
Protection Program and a Comprehensive master plan" (CA Department
of Fish and Game (b), 2002).
"The ultimate goal of the MLPA process is to produce a plan
that will increase the coherence of California's system of
MPAs and its effectiveness at protecting the State's marine
life, habitat, and ecosystems . . . To facilitate obtaining
much needed public input, the MLPA Planning Team has chosen
to publicly present draft concept maps that outline a working
set of MPAs for each marine region. These concepts are preliminary
and have been established to provide a starting point for
discussion. The MLPA Planning Team is seeking advice from
interested parties on the size and location of individual
MPAs and MPA networks. The initial draft concepts will be
discussed at public workshops planned for July" (CA Department
of Fish and Game ( c ), 2002).
|
