Marin County Open Space District,                          Marin County Parks, Open Space

Dear Directors and Commissioners:

The Sierra Club’s 7,000 Marin County members wish to express their support for the Bolinas Lagoon and Duxbury Reef Marine Life Protection Areas (MLPA’s) as recommended by the Bolinas Lagoon Technical Advisory Committee (BLTAC) in their December 17, 2001 letter to the Department of Fish and Game.

Bolinas Lagoon is proposed as a “State Marine Park”, where commercial fishing, invertebrate harvesting, and algae takes would be prohibited, while sport would be limited to three finfish per license per day.Duxbury Reef is proposed as a “Marine Conservation Area” where only salmon would be taken.These harvest levels in both areas represent a significant reduction over currently allowed levels.

The Sierra Club hopes that these limited takes in these limited areas are sustainable.   However, the establishment of truly sustainable take levels in Marine Life Protection Areas requires better knowledge of marine organism life cycles, impacts from fisheries practices and much other local information not currently available.Thus, the Club, in its concurrent letter to Fish and Game, is also proposing a monitoring system to provide the sound scientific basis needed to adaptively manage these and all MLPA’s for truly sustainable harvest.
 

Sincerely,

Gordon Bennett, Marin Group Conservation Co-Chair