CalOceans News

Jan. 21 is Underwater Parks Day!

Mark your calendars: Saturday, January 21 is the fourth annual Underwater Parks Day. It’s a time to celebrate California’s other state parks…the ones in the ocean! 

There is a lot to celebrate in Southern California, where a new network of underwater parks, or “marine protected areas,” was created on January 1 to protect coastal jewels like south La Jolla, Laguna, Point Dume, and Naples Reef. South coast aquaria will have interactive exhibits, videos, speakers, and tidepool tours to introduce local residents to the sea creatures these undersea refuges are designed to shelter.  Click here to find an event near you.

If you prefer to celebrate outside, consider joining Santa Barbara Channelkeeper for a kayak tour of Campus Point, or a Goleta River clean-up.  Or help Heal the Bay clean up Westward Beach before
enjoying a guided nature walk of Point Dume.

If you live in Orange County, and consider yourself a sharpshooter, why not enter Laguna Bluebelt’s photo contest .  From Crystal Cove to Dana Point, the Orange County coastline has several
underwater parks that offer stunning vistas and thriving sea life.

If you’re in Northern California, please considering joining Half Moon Bay Surf Club, Surfrider Foundation and Ocean Conservancy to celebrate Underwater Parks Day with a beach cleanup at Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay. 

Lastly, if you want to learn more about the new underwater park at the mouth of the Tijuana River, come on out February 4 to take a guided nature walk and hear special guest speaker Dr. Octavio Aburto from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography talk about the aquarium of the world, Baja’s Cabo Pulmo. The Cabo Pulmo marine protected area boosted fish numbers by a record-breaking 463% over 10 years.

We look forward to seeing California’s sea life flourish like Baja’s, thanks to the system of marine protected areas our state is creating through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)!

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• underwater parks day
• beach clean-up
• Marine Protected Areas
• Marine Life Protection Act

Underwater parks heralded in press

The New Year brought new protections for some of southern California’s most iconic coastal areas, including La Jolla, Laguna, Santa Monica Bay, and Catalina Island. On January 1, the state celebrated the grand opening of a string of underwater parks that stretches from Point Conception to the border with Mexico.

These “marine protected areas” form the southern section of the statewide network called for under California’s landmark Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA). The network will be complete once planning is finished for the far north coast region, later this year.

Stanford biologist Larry Crowder explained the importance of this network approach on KPCC public radio: “California made a really innovative step here, to link marine protected areas in a network... this helps fish and other marine life feed and breed…a single protected area doesn’t achieve what a network of linked protected areas would do.”

Dozens of scientific studies have shown that marine protected areas boost fisheries health and resilience, which is good news for California fishermen, since 2011 saw the collapse of kelp and barred sand bass and depleted halibut populations that led Marina del Rey anglers to open their famous halibut derby to other species.

The news about California’s new underwater parks was heralded in press all over the state, including Capital Public Radio, Coastline Pilot, Laguna Beach Independent, Malibu Daily Breeze, and Ventura County Star, which quoted Ocean Conservancy’s Greg Helms:

"By protecting hot spots like South La Jolla, Point Dume and Laguna, we are charting a course towards greater sustainability, and that means better fishing, diving, kayaking, tidepooling and birding for our children.”

Southern California residents were overwhelmingly supportive of the protections during the two-year public planning process. According to the Los Angeles Times many are already involved in citizen science and monitoring programs to help ensure their success.  As the San
Diego Tribune notes, fishermen and university scientists are working with volunteer groups like Reef Check on a baseline study that will help inform future management discussions.

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• south coast mlpa
• southern california underwater parks
• south coast marine protected areas

A Happy New Year for the Ocean!

Tomorrow, Southern California will celebrate the grand opening of a series of underwater parks, or “marine protected areas,” that includes wildlife hot spots such as the La Jolla kelp forest, Laguna tidepools, and Catalina Island's coral gardens. These parks will join a growing system that currently dots the shore from Santa Barbara to Mendocino, and will soon stretch the length of California’s coast.

California will be the first state in the nation to develop a science-based statewide network of marine protected areas, protecting productive reefs, kelp forests and tide pools. The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA), enacted in 1999 with bipartisan support, called for this network of protections to improve the health of California’s ocean wildlife and habitats.

“Our nation has been protecting treasured areas on land for 150 years, and now California is doing the same for our ocean, through the Marine Life Protection Act,” said Karen Garrison, Oceans Program Co-Director at  the Natural Resources Defense Council. “From Point Reyes to Big Sur to La Jolla, the state is creating Yosemites of the sea so future generations can experience their grandeur.” 

“After decades of treating the ocean as inexhaustible, California has turned the tide towards restoring its legacy of abundant sea life,” said Kaitilin Gaffney, Pacific Program Director of Ocean Conservancy. “California’s new protected areas are a smart investment in a healthier ocean and a more sustainable coastal economy.”

The marine protected areas going into effect January 1 were designed by local citizens, including fishermen, surfers, conservationists and business leaders, to protect productive ocean areas while leaving about 90% of the coast open for fishing (see a map of fishing areas left open).  Many of the are located alongside public beaches and state parks, creating great opportunities for  education, research, and recreation.

California’s coast and ocean generate $22 billion in revenue and drive over 350,000 jobs each year, and more than 90 percent of visitors comes to walk the beach, dive, surf, swim, or kayak, making the new ocean parks a smart investment in the region's environmental and economic health.

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• mlpa
• marine protected area
• south coast MPAs
• south coast region
• marine reserves
• underwater parks

Explore southern California's new underwater parks

On January 1, California will celebrate the grand opening of a series of underwater parks along the south coast. Enjoy this visual tour!

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• mlpa
• marine protected area
• marine reserve
• south coast region

A great year for ocean protection

As 2011 draws to a close, we reflect on a year of progress for ocean conservation in California. The state’s network of underwater parks moves ever closer to completion. Southern California ocean fans are eagerly awaiting the grand opening of new marine protected areas at south La Jolla, Laguna, Point Dume, Naples Reef and other hot spots in January 1. And progress continues on the far north coast, where an underwater parks plan will be finalized next year.

Fall and winter are primetime for whale viewing on the California coast.  Recently, visiting humpbacks made state and national news. Winter is also a fantastic time to go bird watching, or observe the annual, epic mating rituals of elephant seals at protected areas like Ano Nuevo or Piedras Blancas. Finally, seasonal low tides make for great tidepooling at Fitzgerald
Marine Reserve, Point Lobos, and Salt Point.

On California’s far north coast, conservationists, local residents, state officials and tribal communities have come together in support of a vision for the future where underwater parks and traditional tribal harvest co-exist in support of long-term ocean health. To cement that partnership, Hawk Rosales of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council wrote an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee in which he said native tribes will “celebrate this significant progress and will stay focused on building a brighter future – for tribes and for California.” You can listen here to a radio interview in which Hawk discusses the growing partnership between the state and North Coast tribes.

Finally, the North County Times delivers this uplifting report from the marine reserve in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, where the sea life has grown an astonishing 1,067 percent, much to the delight of the sharks, groupers and other predators in the region – and the humans that love them! It provides a positive example of the sort of benefits California can hope to derive from the creation of our own network of underwater parks through the Marine Life Protection Act.

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• Marine Life Protection Act
• mlpa
• marine reserve
• north coast
• South Coast

Winter tidepooling in California's underwater parks

Seasonal low tides make winter a great time to visit the tidepools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Point Lobos, Salt Point and Point Dume.

These coastal hotspots provide a window into the underwater world. From sea stars to anemones and fish to colorful nudibranchs, sharp-eyed visitors can see myriad plants and animals, often guided by volunteer docents.

Many of California's best tidepooling sites are marine protected areas, or underwater parks, which have been set aside to allow wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy nature. These marine protected areas are often located alongside state and county beaches, connecting land and sea, and offering great opportunities for bird and mammal watching, hiking, kayaking, and other activities.

To make sure the tidepools remain healthy and vibrant for future visitors, its important to practice good etiquette. This guide from Orange County Marine Protected Area Council has rules for being a good tidepooler, and this page from the California Department of Fish and Game includes great resources for teachers planning school field trips.

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• tidepooling
• marine reserve
• mpa

Ocean acidification arrives in the Pacific NW

According to a recent article by Yale 360, the acidification of our oceans from an excess of carbon dioxide emissions has already begun. A recent die-off of oysters in the Pacific Northwest is a reminder that these changes to ocean conditions will have widespread impacts throughout the ocean food chain and coastal economies.  

Scientists in the article called oysters a bellweather, and say this is just a harbinger of things to come if greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar.  The fate of today's shellfish is actually dependent on the carbon release from tailpipes and smokestacks in the 1960's and '70s.

Because of the way seawater circulates around the world, the deep water now washing ashore in Oregon and Washington is actually 30 to 50 years old. This time lag is important because oceans absorb about 50 percent of the carbon released by burning fossil fuels, emissions that have been rising dramatically in recent decades.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ocean acidity has increased approximately 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution, and if we continue our current rate of carbon emissions, global oceans could be 150 percent more acidic by the end of the century than they have been for 20 million years.

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• ocean acidification
• climate change
• shellfish
• climate impacts on the ocean

The great migration along California's coast

As Ocean Conservancy's Kaitilin Gaffney notes, the parade of sea life that swims and flies along our coast each fall has just begun. November brings thousands of gray whales headed south on their more than 6,000 mile migration from summer feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas to calving grounds in the warm-water lagoons of Mexico's Baja peninsula.

You can watch them from Point Reyes, Big Sur, or Davenport, north of Santa Cruz, where you can often see whales cruise by from the bluffs overlooking the sea.

Winter is also a great time to see elephant seals.  From December to March they can be seen hauled out on California beaches at Point Reyes, Año Nuevo and Piedras Blancas where they mate, fight and give birth.

In addition to mammal sightings, this time of year brings great opportunities for birdwatching. Many seabirds spend their winters enjoying the relatively mild climate and reliable food supply of Monterey Bay. January brings murres, auklets, and other open-ocean birds in from their normal offshore habitat to calmer coastal waters.

Areas like Monterey Bay, Point Reyes, and the Farallon Islands have been set aside as marine protected areas or sanctuaries to help protect the wildlife that delights visitors.

Right now, California is working to expand its marine protected area system through the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA). This landmark effort brings fishermen, scientists, conservationists, business leaders and recreational ocean users together to map out a statewide network of ocean refuges that will keep special places from Del Norte County to San Diego full of ocean life.

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• winter wildlife
• MPAs
• Marine Protected Areas
• monterey

A Healthy Ocean Harvest

This month, we are thankful for the great strides being made in marine protected area creation, research, and education in California.  Read on for the latest news:

Court upholds northern California marine protected areas
The big (and really good!) news this month was a Superior Court decision that upheld California’s authority to create underwater parks along northern California’s coast under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA). This ruling is a win for the economy, environment and the millions of visitors who flock to our shores every year. It’s also good news for the South Coast, where a series of marine protected areas are slated to go into effect on January 1. California worked hard to include divers, surfers, fishermen, business leaders and other groups in the planning process, and the court’s ruling validates the state’s community-driven approach.

Getting the word out in Southern California
With the eagerly awaited opening day for southern California’s new underwater parks just weeks away, Surfrider and Reef Check are teaming up on a series of public forums designed to raise awareness about the protected areas, and answer any questions people might have. They are hosting events in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. To find one near you, check out this flyer.

A different kind of lobster hunt
Monitoring the plants and animals that live in and around California’s new underwater parks will provide a detailed picture of the current state of our ocean so we can track changes over time and make even better decisions going forward. Gathering this information requires an all-hands on deck effort, which is why innovative partnerships such as the one taking place between lobster fishermen, state wildlife regulators and scientists in San Diego are so important. This collaborative study will establish a baseline for California spiny lobster populations. And scientists need your help! Anyone who catches a tagged lobster is encouraged to document the catch at taggedlobster.com.

“Thank You Ocean” says “thank you MPAs”
California’s Thank You Ocean Campaign, a nonprofit partnership supported by the State of California, the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Ocean Communicators Alliance, has unveiled a new page dedicated to MPAs (click here for the Spanish version). In addition to lots of great info on the MLPA and the iconic waters being protected, you can find a series of podcasts, including this recent story that explains that importance of adaptive management.

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• mlpa
• mpa
• Marine Life Protection Act
• Marine Protected Areas
• marine science
• ocean conservation

Preserving the Ocean and Tribal Way of Life on the North Coast

“Much work remains to build long-term trust between California and the many tribes of this state. But an important page has been turned.” – Hawk Rosales, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council

In all the years of planning, meetings and compromises that have gone into making the Marine Life Protection Act a success, the stakeholder partnership taking place in the North Coast has to be the most impressive. They did, after all, come up with the only unanimous proposal for network of Marine Protected Areas for the region (the North Coast network is expected to be finalized next year).

But there was a hitch in the plan. Traditional tribal harvest wasn’t accounted for in the MLPA, and the new protections for the North Coast overlapped with the tribes’ historic harvesting sites. In an op-ed in today’s Sacramento Bee, Hawk Rosales of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council  describes the positive, constructive steps the tribes and the state have made in reaching agreement on a plan that preserves tribal rights while safeguarding California’s iconic coastal waters.

Despite historic injustices perpetrated by the state against native peoples, Rosales says “recent events offer hope that, at last, a new era is beginning.”

From the piece:

For the tribes, protection of the ocean and traditional cultural use of marine resources are inseparable ideas. Without careful stewardship, the ocean's gifts will steadily decline and may someday vanish. North Coast residents, including fishermen, harbor districts and conservation groups, stood in solidarity with the tribes.

Rosales praises state officials, including Resources Secretary John Laird and members and staff of the MLPA Initiative, for carefully considering tribal concerns. This story is a testament to the public, inclusive nature of the MLPA: coming together to make ocean management decisions that protect marine life while being respectful of the needs of all ocean users.

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• mlpa
• north coast
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• tribes