California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Announcement
Who: MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF)

What: Information regarding marine protected area (MPA) options under consideration by the BRTF (see additional details below)

Where: An overview table, maps, descriptions of common MPAs, descriptions of MPA options at four geographies, and a side-by-side comparison of proposed allowed uses in the four geographies are available at http://resources.ca.gov/mlpa_scrsg/ in a folder titled "BRTF Options Under Review." Monday afternoon these files will also be posted to the MLPA website (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa). Additional information is available on MarineMap at http://www.marinemap.org/marinemap/.

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The BRTF reviewed the Round 3 MLPA South Coast Regional Stakeholder Group (SCRSG) marine protected area proposals at its recent meeting (October 20-22). During this meeting, the BRTF considered options for what to include in a preferred alternative to be recommended to the California Fish and Game Commission.

A subset of MPAs was agreed upon by the BRTF to be potentially included in a preferred alternative. In addition, there are four general geographies where alternative options have been identified and requested for separate analysis: Point Dume (three options), Palos Verdes (two options), Orange County (two options), and San Diego (four options). All MPA options are currently under consideration and review by the BRTF, and none of the MPAs have been formally included in the preferred alternative. The BRTF will reconvene on November 10 to further discuss these options.

A number of materials summarize the MPA configurations that the BRTF is considering for a preferred alternative:

* Subregional maps
* Overview table of MPAs under consideration
* Descriptions of common MPAs
* Descriptions of MPA options in four geographies
* Comparison of proposed allowed uses in MPA options for the four geographies
* Additional Information in MarineMap

The options in MarineMap are included in five different arrays, titled:

 ? BRTF Options - MPAs Common to All Options
 ? BRTF Options - Point Dume MPA Options
 ? BRTF Options - Palos Verdes MPA Options
 ? BRTF Options - Orange County MPA Options
 ? BRTF Options - San Diego MPA Options