California Congressional Leaders Urge Expansion of Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries
WASHINGTON—Today, California Reps. Jared Huffman, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Jackie Speier, Anna Eshoo and 13 other members of the California Congressional Delegation voiced their strong support for the proposed 2,771 square mile boundary expansion of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries. In today’s letter, submitted as part of the official public comment period, the members also stated their support for a permanent ban on offshore drilling and seabed mining throughout the expanded Sanctuaries.
“We are writing again in support of the boundary expansion up the Sonoma coast north to Mendocino County, and in strong support of placing a permanent ban on offshore drilling and seabed mining and protecting against potential pipelines,” the members wrote. “The expansion of the Sanctuaries is too important an accomplishment for it to be stalled by separate regulatory changes, which raise a number of potentially controversial issues not directly related to the expansion.”
The Congressional signers of the letter represent an unbroken stretch of the Northern California coastline from Santa Cruz County to the Oregon border. The proposed boundary area expansion covers the offshore coastal area from Bodega Bay in Sonoma County to a point just north of Point Arena in Mendocino County, an area represented in Congress by Congressman Huffman. A map of the proposed expansion can be found HERE:
The members also indicated their desire for NOAA to move quickly to expand the Sanctuaries while not making changes to existing fishing regulations within the Sanctuaries.
In addition to Huffman, Pelosi, Speier and Eshoo, the letter was signed by Reps. Mike Thompson, Barbara Lee, Mike Honda, Alan Lowenthal, Doris O. Matsui, George Miller, Adam Schiff, Mark Takano, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Julia Brownley, Linda T. Sanchez, and Zoe Lofgren.
The full text of the letter can be found HERE or below:
June 18, 2014
Maria Brown
Sanctuary Superintendent
Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
991 Marine Drive, The Presidio
San Francisco, CA 94129
Dear Superintendent Brown:
Thank you for your office’s hard work and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) commitment to moving forward with the long awaited boundary expansion of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank Sanctuaries. We are writing again in support of the boundary expansion up the Sonoma coast north to Mendocino County, and in strong support of placing a permanent ban on offshore drilling and seabed mining and protecting against potential pipelines. We are pleased to join local and state governments, fishers, chambers of commerce, community groups, and individual citizens in this effort.
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, who previously represented this area, carried the legislation and worked for years to bring about this National Marine Sanctuary extension; achieving these important protections will be part of her legacy. As we look at the boundary lines, we urge you to consider the original Congressional bill language that would protect sanctuary resources and values by expanding the boundary to the mean high tide of the estuaries.
We understand that there are a number of factors at play as you draft regulations for the expansion. Regarding the wide range of specific provisions in the draft regulations, we ask that NOAA move forward with the boundary expansion, apply existing regulations within present Sanctuaries to the new area, and address all other aspects of the draft regulations in a separate process. Processes already exist to update the existing regulations to fit the new expanded area, including a Joint Management Plan Review, which can provide public input, local expertise, and scientific research. In considering more controversial aspects of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), like the Authorization Authority, we urge NOAA to move forward in a separate process, as intended in the Woolsey-Boxer expansion bills, to allow for the necessary amount of local input and education needed for such changes. The expansion of the Sanctuaries is too important an accomplishment for it to be stalled by separate regulatory changes, which raise a number of potentially controversial issues not directly related to the expansion. If non-controversial regulation changes are required to properly manage the Sanctuaries we ask that you provide us detailed information of those regulations and why they are needed.
We would also like to express our appreciation that the DEIS would not change existing fishing regulations within the Sanctuaries. Commercial fishing remains an economic driver along the Northern California coast and these waters attract recreational fishermen from across the country.
Thank you for moving forward on this historic Sanctuary extension and engaging the community in this process. We appreciate the work you do managing the Sanctuaries and look forward to working with you as this process continues.
Respectfully,
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