California Fish and Game Code 2851 – The Legislature finds and declares all of the …
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California’s marine protected areas (MPAs) were established on a piecemeal basis rather than according to a coherent plan and sound scientific guidelines. Many of these MPAs lack clearly defined purposes, effective management measures and enforcement. As a result, the array of MPAs creates the illusion of protection while falling far short of its potential to protect and conserve living marine life and habitat.
Terms Used In California Fish and Game Code 2851
- Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
- Fish: means a wild fish, mollusk, crustacean, invertebrate, amphibian, or part, spawn, or ovum of any of those animals. See California Fish and Game Code 45
- Fishery: means both of the following:
California Fish and Game Code 94
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Fish and Game Code 83
- Take: means hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill, or attempt to hunt, pursue, catch, capture, or kill. See California Fish and Game Code 86
(b) California’s extraordinary marine biological diversity is a vital asset to the state and nation. The diversity of species and ecosystems found in the state’s ocean waters is important to public health and well-being, ecological health, and ocean-dependent industry.
(c) Coastal development, water pollution, and other human activities threaten the health of marine habitat and the biological diversity found in California’s ocean waters. New technologies and demands have encouraged the expansion of fishing and other activities to formerly inaccessible marine areas that once recharged nearby fisheries. As a result, ecosystems throughout the state’s ocean waters are being altered, often at a rapid rate.
(d) Fish and other sea life are a sustainable resource, and fishing is an important community asset. MPAs and sound fishery management are complementary components of a comprehensive effort to sustain marine habitats and fisheries.
(e) Understanding of the impacts of human activities and the processes required to sustain the abundance and diversity of marine life is limited. The designation of certain areas as sea life reserves can help expand our knowledge by providing baseline information and improving our understanding of ecosystems where minimal disturbance occurs.
(f) Marine life reserves are an essential element of an MPA system because they protect habitat and ecosystems, conserve biological diversity, provide a sanctuary for fish and other sea life, enhance recreational and educational opportunities, provide a reference point against which scientists can measure changes elsewhere in the marine environment, and may help rebuild depleted fisheries.
(g) Despite the demonstrated value of marine life reserves, only 14 of the 220,000 square miles of combined state and federal ocean water off California, or six-thousandths of 1 percent, are set aside as genuine no take areas.
(h) For all of the above reasons, it is necessary to modify the existing collection of MPAs to ensure that they are designed and managed according to clear, conservation-based goals and guidelines that take full advantage of the multiple benefits that can be derived from the establishment of marine life reserves.
(Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 1015, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2000.)