On Monday night, the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve Community Team completed their task after meeting for 11 months and submitted their final recommendations for a marine reserve with a marine protected area (MPA) as a buffer to the North and South. This group has come a long way since their formation by ODFW as part of fulfilling HB 3013, thanks in large part to the great leadership of Mark Hixon (science rep) and Al Pazar (commercial fishing rep). The teams final recommendation was to establish a marine reserve of 3.5 nautical miles shoreline length that goes approximately 3 nautical miles offshore, the proposed reserve would start at the mouth of Tenmile Creek and extend Northwards, just to the south of Cape Perpetua. Also proposed North of the Marine Reserve would be an MPA that would allow for salmon trolling, crabbing and shoreside angling, this would extend to the North of the town of Yachats. To the south of the marine reserve would be another MPA, extending south past Heceta Head to Berry Creek and out to a depth of 10 fathoms. From 10 fathoms out to approximately 3 nautical miles would be an innovative Seabird Conservation Area that would restrict the harvest of bait fish and not allow industrial development, i.e. wave energy or offshore aquaculture. To download a map of the final recommendation, click here. The final proposal was a near consensus recommendation, minus one objecting voice. Overall, the recommendation as a package represents a significant compromise from the original proposal as recommended by the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC). However, it strikes a good balance between the sideboards of protecting an ecologically significant area, while minimizing potential economic impacts. The recommendations now move onto to ODFW for review, and then to OPAC at their meeting on December 6/7 in Newport. Pending OPAC’s approval of this recommendation, along with others from the areas of Cascade Head and Cape Falcon, the State Legislature will consider a policy bill during the 2011 session to provide funding for monitoring, research, and enforcement. Stay tuned for ongoing ways to help support this important effort and see these recommendations come to fruition. The Siuslaw Chapter would like to thank Peggy Meyer, Gus Gates, Seth Mead, and Jon Tipple for representing non-consumptive recreational users, as well as all of the Cape Perpetua community team members for their hard work and dedication throughout this process.
photo credit Gus Gates
