Leticia Francis, Conservation Liaison, San Francisco Zoo and Gardens presents to the Golden Gate Collaborative
On September 26, 2024, EAC was invited to present at the Golden Gate Collaborative meeting, which was held at the San Francisco Zoo. EAC’s Executive Director, Ashley Eagle-Gibbs presented our marine protected area (MPA) petitions. EAC’s Program Director was also in attendance remotely, and she is one of the Golden Gate Collaborative Co-chairs. Other topics of the meeting included 30x30 public comment on the Draft Framework, group, and collaborative updates.
Sara Worden of the California Fish and Wildlife Department (CDFW) also presented the next steps for the petition process, including prioritizing the review of Bin 1 petitions, which includes EAC’s Drakes Estero petition.
Next steps include:
October 9th: Progress updates to the Fish and Game Commission.
November 6th: The Marine Resources Committee discusses draft Bin 1 recommendations and Bin 2 evaluation approach. EAC’s Duxbury Reef petition is in Bin 2.
December 11th: The Fish and Game Commission r receives the annual MPA program update and discusses the next steps.
EAC will be participating in the November and December meetings, continuing to support our 2 MPA petitions.
MPA Mapping
Also, earlier this week, the CDFW released a new webpage that provides information on current petitions to modify California’s MPA Network. In 2023, the Fish and Game Commission (FGC) invited the public to submit petitions to propose changes to the MPA network. EAC submitted two petitions in 2023: one for Drakes Estero (no. 2023-31MPA) and one for Duxbury Reef (no. 2023-32MPA). This webpage provides information on the individual proposed changes and, eventually, status updates on the petition process and the evaluation of each petition. The Ocean Protection Council is working with CDFW and Fish and Game Commission staff to develop an objective, transparent, and science-based evaluation process to assess these petitions.
Learn More:
Contact Ashley if you want to learn more / have questions.
Support our petitions by sending comments/questions to: fgc@fgc.ca.gov
