MLPA-Initiative and Local Seaweed Rebels in Northern California Seaweed Rebellion Brain Food Resources: Requires knowledge of how to use a depth finder. Seaweed Rebellion MLPA Resources   http://www.astral-arts.com/resources.html   MLPA Resources July 2009 Click on image to DOWNLOAD 9 page PDF 1.13mb Or Click  HERE  for 330kb version without graphic. Also DOWNLOAD 188kb PDF of the Public Hearing testimony from a Seaweed Rebel, August 5 2009, before the Commission: MLPA-Initiative: Is MAXXAM Back?  Dr John Seidl and Barry Munitz the Moore Foundation, Resources Legacy Fund Foundation What a decade on the North Coast! 1999-2009 This year has been celebrated as the 10th anniversary of the MLPA, the Headwaters deal, the Sustained Yield Plans and Habitat Conservation Plans. This year also included the MAXXAM bankruptcy hearing and land transfer to the San Francisco family Fisher holdings and renamed Humboldt Redwoods Co. Other North Coast events included a Fisheries Reality Tour in Point Arena at Sea Lion Cove only 6 weeks before Abalone diving and Seaweed Harvesting were banned by the August 5th, 2009 MLPA closure. There was also the controversial signed-on support of The Ocean Conservancy and Sierra Club California (Kaitlin Gaffney, Paul Mason respectively) for offshore oil and LNG development at Tranquillon Ridge off Santa Barbara's Coast. (EDC Press Release 012609) MLPA-I:  To Be Or Not To Be  (in the process), That Is The Question?! California Coastal area  closures to the intertidal and coastal waters  access will be in place by 2011 unless this  Fisheries Fascism  is stopped. The Marine Life Protection Act is about prevention; the prevention of local coastal cultural activities, prevention of fishing, prevention of democratic process by intrigue (it's a big game), prevention of integrated Marine Spatial Planning directives and a more moderate time frame to complete both seafloor and bathymetric layer information and placed based socio-economic impacts studies, and prevention of involvement. Talk to a fisher, a wild ocean food harvester (seaweed), or a family angler. What a game! To begin by placing the original law (AB 993) into the hands of private billion dollar foundations - with links to presiding officers of MAXXAM and ENRON (also S&L failures) within a decade of the collapse of the North Coast timber industry, which even it's own right, couldn't survive the corporate pace imposed upon it by external market forces and hostile takeovers, the price of golden parachutes, the rise of resistance within ranks, and local support for activism - was a mistake. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Farce is chaired by the CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association, and other members primary business associations are Global Full Service Marinas (management and purchase), Waterfront Properties, Harbor Real Estate.... Offshore at Santa Barbara: Paredon, Tranquillon Ridge Proposals: "New" Oil Extraction Technologies Subvert Recent State AG MLPA Informal Opinion (Sept 25th, 2009, to Brian Baird, Asst. Secretary for Ocean and Coastal Policy) The Sept 25th, 2009 informal opinion of the State Attorney General's Office is that "neither the MLPA nor the MMAIA define injure, take, damage, or possess. DFG defines "take" AND THE Endangered Species Act (ESA) defines harm as an act which actually kills or injures wildlife and may include significant habitat modification." As a side note, under MMS OCS law terminology, ESA mitigations for 'potential unlawful harm in the environment' can be human behavioral modifications, like watching training videos, and placing placards in conspicuous places. But There is no "Take" of Protected Species as a Result of Exposure to Oil. June 15,2001, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a no-jeopardy Biological Opinion that contains the following language NMFS is not including an incidental take statement for the incidental take of listed species due to oil exposure.Incidental take,as defined at 50 CFR 402.02, refers only to takings that result from an otherwise lawful activity. The Clean Water Act (33 USC 1251, et seq.), as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 USC 2701 et seq.) prohibits discharges of harmful quantities of oil, as defined at 40 CFR 110.3, into the waters of the United States. Therefore, even though this biological opinion has the effects on listed species by oil spills that may result from the proposed action, those takings that would result from an unlawful activity (i.e., oil spills) have no protective coverage under section 7 (o)(2) of the Endangered Species Act. Seaweed Rebellion Brain Food Resources: Requires knowledge of how to use a depth finder. Seaweed Rebellion MLPA Resources   http://www.astral-arts.com/resources.html   MLPA Resources Ocean Policy Changes and Impacts To Our Northern California Coast Fishing Villages useful info headings and links. Peruse the California Fisheries Coalition entire archive it is all very articulate and relevant. At the California Fisheries Coalition blog, this link goes to a great Sept 1 2009 article by Mendocino County fish commissioner Craig Bell http://californiafisheriescoalition.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html In March 2009 before the Senate Fisheries & Aquaculture committee a testimony by Presented by Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director, Recreational Fishing Alliance Vice President, Salmon Restoration Association Vice President, Sonoma County Abalone Network Mendocino County Fish & Game Commission Groundfish Advisor to the Pacific Fishery Management Council Member, MLPA Statewide Interest Group Trustee, California Fisheries Coalition http://www.pierfishing.com/msgboard/viewtopic.php?p=33875 View the  RDARS 2009 Report  which clearly shows that the influence of Big Oil, Privatization, Harbor Real Estate and Waterfront Development interests are not "lurking behind" the process, but right out front in top leadership positions that control the public input by moving around the musical chairs through the revolving doors and voting to finalize their plan. The most obvious example of this just occurred August 1, 2009 in time for the 080509 hearing. http://www.times-standard.com/ci_13156956 The arrogance that we face as wild seaweed harvesters and divers and fishers can be heard in this 2 min mp3 461kb download. This is the 080509 hearing in Woodland, this excerpt is from the end of the 5 hours of testimony just before a decision to close Point Arena at Sea Lion Cove. http://www.astral-arts.com/audiomovie/ourjob.mp3 The connections between ENRON, MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, the Nature Conservancy, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, and the Getty Trust, Gray Davis and AB 993 which is the MLPA in it's original form are Dr. John Mick "Enron" Seidl - President of ENRON, MAXXAM, Pacific Lumber, and  Barry Munitz  the VP. SAN FRANCISCO June 5, 2001 The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation announced the addition of Dr. John M. "Mick" Seidl as Director for the Foundation's Environmental Programs. Seidl oversaw, directed and managed the grant administration of the Foundation's environmental programs, which focus on biodiversity and the protection of the intact natural ecosystem. He only reported directly to Lew Coleman, the Foundation's President. "With the Foundation's unique approach to grant-making, we stand to make a significant impact through the smart protection, preservation and stewardship of the earth's biodiversity." J. Seidl http://www.allbusiness.com/environment-natural-resources/ecology-environmental/6136963-1.html What else is going on right now, and with deadlines recently passed or approaching? The Council on Environmental Quality Intra-Agency Ocean Policy Task Force Interim Report, Integrated Marine Spatial Planning, Ecosystem Based Management, Adaptive Management, Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, zoning changes by ballot initiatives in Mendocino and Ventura counties, Offshore Oil Moratoria (now expired), cultural genocide by exclusion to ceremonial and subsistence gathering places by indigenous peoples as in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties (August 2009 Decision), local food movements, watershed foodsheds, ecosystem boundaries, localization, wave energy farms, ocean industrial leases, desalination, LNG, oil seeps and rigs to reefs aquaculture, floating airports, whale killings, Blue Whale deaths, dolphin slaughters... MPA's don't protect marine resources from pollution, or oil exploration and drilling by deviated drilling, or horizontal drilling, or directional drilling, seabed development, aquaculture, industrialization of coastal waters, CONSERVATION LEASING AND OWNERSHIP OF MARINE RIGHTS, the lease of state water bottoms or the water column to any person for aquaculture, including, but not limited to, marine finfish aquaculture, or naval operations and militarization or noise, just food gathering. Join the Seaweed Rebellion and help STOP the MLPA-Initiative in the Legislature. Support your local Kelp Harvester and Native Rights. Join local Seaweed Rebels in Northern California where some of the best seaweed and sea vegetables grow! Astral-Arts Mendocino registered as a Mendocino County business in the Spring of 2003. All artwork, media, audio, video, projet series names and individual titles are Copyright Protected ©2004 ©2005 ©2006 ©2007 ©2008 ©2009 Author: Thomas DiFiore. All business logos and product line artwork, are marks with specific fonts used in the identification of goods/services as used in commerce, and are trademarks of the author or Astral Arts Mendocino.