Volunteers Needed For The Ecotrust South Coast Mlpa Survey

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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR THE ECOTRUST SOUTH COAST MLPA SURVEY

WANTED – Salt-stained kayak anglers, the core of the hardcore, who want to stake a claim to their kayak fishing spots in the upcoming MLPA reserve process. Stand up and be counted; sign up for the Ecotrust MLPA socio-economic survey. www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup

WHAT: Sign-ups for the Ecotrust SoCal MLPA Survey.

WHEN: ASAP, 100+ core experienced kayak anglers.

WHY: To demonstrate our key use spots. List it or lose it! Don’t hold anything back, because the resulting data will be used to demonstrate where reserves can go while minimizing impacts on current user groups (that’s us).

OH YEAH? WHY SHOULD I TRUST THEM?: For argument’s sake, let’s say none of the survey participants listed La Jolla or Pt Dume or Dana Pt. Pro-closure forces can party down, because they’ll say “Look, we can close these areas and it won’t hurt the fishing community.”

WHO AGAIN?: The gnarliest, most experienced kayak anglers around, people who’ve been there and done that.

WHAT SHOULD SURVEY VOLUNTEERS EXPECT?: Survey volunteers MUST sign-up at www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup Some time later, Ecotrust will contact those people selected for the survey via email or telephone and provide a link to an online survey. That will consist of a series of questions and a exercise in spending 100 pennies at your key spots. They can go anywhere, including in closed areas or Federal waters (putting them in a closure area indicates you’ve already paid a price, so it’s not a waste).

NOTE – bays and harbors do not meet the MLPA’s scientific standards for a network of reserves, so they are at significantly reduced risk of large closures. If you fish bays, sure, spend some of your pennies there, but please spread the bulk of them on the ocean.

WHAT WAS THAT SIGN-UP AGAIN?:www.ecotrust.org/mlpa/interview_signup Go there now!

HEY, WHAT IS THIS MLPA THING? I’VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK: The Marine Life Protection Act is a state law mandating creation of a network of marine reserves aka closures. There’s no fighting it – this thing is the law of the land and has the full backing of the governor and legislature. SoCal is up next, beginning right now. We can expect to lose from 10 to 20 percent of our total state waters. WHICH water is a key question, and why we are engaged in the process. Like your launch site? Participate in the process – Go to Meetings – Help the KFACA with the Coming Mountain of Documents – and soon Give Cash to fund KFACA MLPA Efforts.

I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS: Call Kayak Fishing Association of California director Paul Lebowitz at 858-254-3600 any time between 7 am and 10 pm. If I’m not fishing, I’ll answer or call you back soon.

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Great news. Ecotrust plans to survey everyone who signed up. In fact, its still not to late to do so. The survey process will continue through Sept; only some 400 out of a total of 1,000 survey invitations have been sent out.

If you signed up and feel Ecotrust has missed you, give them a ring. Same goes for those who have experienced a problem with the computerized survey. Issues have included slow survey loading or failure to load, loss of progress in a work session, and the like.

According to Ecotrust, they experienced server issues last week. Those who started the process but haven’t finished shouldn’t worry about the 4-day time limit. It has been extended. If you can’t get on, call Ecotrust and let them know.

In fact, with any survey issue or concern, please contact Ecotrust. If they don’t respond in timely fashion, let me know and be as specific as you can. This data product will carry tremendous weight in the reserve planning process – we need to identify its flaws now, and bring them to the attention of the MLPA Initiative staff.

The Ecotrust contacts:

Jon Bonkoski: 503.467.0804 / jbonkoski@ecotrust.org
Sarah Kruse: 503.467.0785 / skruse@ecotrust.org

Thanks!

Paul