California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Announcement

Who: North Coast External MPA Array Proponents and Interested Members of the Public

What: Memo from MLPA Initiative staff regarding next steps for external MPA arrays developed by north coast community groups (see attached)

Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Thank you for your tremendous efforts to develop and submit external marine protected area (MPA) arrays for the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) North Coast Study Region. This memo outlines the next steps for the review and evaluation of external MPA arrays developed by community groups, and the process for incorporating MPA arrays into Rounds 2 and 3 of the MPA planning process (to view a process diagram for the MLPA North Coast Study Region visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/pdfs/guide_diagram.pdf).

Submitted external MPA arrays will be initially reviewed by MLPA staff for completeness; if errors are found or questions arise during this preliminary review, staff will contact the array's proponent to clarify. Following initial review and possible clarifications, all complete external MPA arrays will be evaluated by the MLPA Master Plan Science Advisory Team (SAT), California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), California Department of Parks and Recreation (State Parks) and MLPA Initiative staff. The MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) will also review these external MPA arrays, and the public will have the opportunity to review and comment.

The MLPA North Coast Regional Stakeholder Group (NCRSG), with input from the SAT, BRTF, DFG, State Parks, staff and the public, is charged with the task of developing the next iteration of MPA proposals. The NCRSG will be asked to learn from and build off the external arrays and their evaluations, and to draw on input from the BRTF and public to begin developing "Round 2" draft MPA proposals. The NCRSG members will also be able to draw upon MPA ideas that are submitted (these individual MPA ideas or shapes are not considered full arrays and therefore are not formally evaluated) as they develop MPA proposals. The external MPA arrays will form the basis for MPA proposals developed by the NCRSG and therefore will not be carried through the MPA planning process as standalone MPA proposals; however they will continue to be available as sources of information throughout the process, as they have in previous study regions.

There will be numerous opportunities for community groups and interested members of the public to continue contributing their knowledge and ideas to the north coast MPA planning process:

• Engage in direct communication with individual NCRSG members. The list of NCRSG members and their affiliations is below and can also be found online (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/ncproject.asp#members)

• Attend meetings and open houses in person, or watch archived videos online (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/meetings_n.asp)

• Submit verbal or written comments to MLPA Initiative groups (BRTF, SAT or NCRSG)

• Provide feedback on documents for public comment.

• Continue interacting with and providing ideas to MLPA Initiative staff

Once again, we thank you for contributing your valuable local knowledge to help build a strong foundation from which the NCRSG can work to develop MPA proposals for the north coast study region