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Growth stresses Pacific Ocean, commission says © Copyright 2004 San Mateo County Times Thursday, March 25, 2004 - SACRAMENTO -- A decades-long explosion of coastal development combined with California's rapid population growth is significantly stressing a Pacific Ocean that must absorb sewage, chemicals, oil runoff and a host of other destructive influences, members of the Pew Oceans Commission told state lawmakers Wednesday. The experts, representing an 18-member commission that reported on U.S. oceans in June, cited the state's growth for wiping out 90 percent of its coastal wetlands, closing polluted beaches and decimating fish populations. "The question is are we going to allow that same kind of crisis, that same kind of collapse to happen again and again and again?" asked Leon Panetta, the commission chairman and former congressman, citing the 1950s disappearance of sardines from Monterey Peninsula. The oceans commission is a $5.5 million project of Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, the $4.1 billion foundation of one of the founders of Sun Oil Co., now Sunoco. "The oceans are in peril and we know why that is," Stanford University professor Stephen Palumbi told lawmakers. "The oceans have really experienced an industrial revolution in the last 50 years. Huge cargo ships, oil and gas platforms and huge sewer pipes. No longer is the ocean a huge impenetrable vast place." Half Moon Bay fisherman Pietro Parravano, a commission member, argued that laws that presided over the collapse of fish populations and loss of wetlands need updating. "We are continuing with the very policies that facilitated this collapse," he said. Noting that the number of commercial fishing boats in California has fallen by half since the mid-1970s, Parravano said, "I don't think the number of boats is the issue. You're starting to see major pollution damage to the ecosystems that are affecting the ocean. We've lost 90 percent of our wetlands, and wetlands are a critical nursery area for 75 percent of all marine species. You break the link in that life cycle and you can keep fishermen off the water for 30 years." Panetta and others, including top officials of the Schwarzenegger administration, called for new governing approaches and better state coordination of ocean policies in a state of 35.3 million people. Speakers also suggested buying more coast land to prevent development, slowing development on remaining coastal properties and curbing pollution that comes from distant inland zones, including runoff from farms. The hearing, before the Assembly Select Committee on Coastal Protection, came as lawmakers consider two Senate bills to create a Cabinet-level ocean protection council within state government and use state bonds to buy coastal fishing boats and retire licenses. © Copyright 2004 San Mateo County Times |
