|
|
| The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Weekly Newspaper |
| OPINION |
Opinion
Archives » |
Untitled Document
| Drakes oysters: California's treasure in a half-shell |
Bill Wigert
2008-04-24 |
|
The North Central Coast Regional Stakeholders, as a part of the California Marine Protection Act (MPLA), have done terrific work on the California coast and deserve our support. But the MPLA process is poised to make a serious blunder in our watershed, specifically regarding their intention to discontinue oyster cultivation in Drakes Estero after 2012.
All three of the current Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will result in the termination of oyster farming in 2012. This date has nothing to do with science and should be removed. 2012 is simply the date of expiration of the federal lease to Drakes Bay Oyster Co. (DBOC).
The state of California clearly has a big stake in the DBOC. The magnitude of the oyster lease is enormous – it represents 50 percent of the state’s total leased shellfish waters. DBOC provides employment and revenue to the state. It provides local, sustainable food, with a minimal carbon footprint. It is environmentally friendly.
The state has issued leases for shellfish cultivation since at least 1934. The Fish & Game Commission approved the renewal of the lease in 2005 to DBOC until 2029 stating that “a lease renewal was in the best interest of the State of California.”
In 1965 the state of California ceded lands to the federal government to help create the Point Reyes National Seashore (PRNS) with the condition that: “There is hereby reserved to the people of the state the right to fish in the waters underlying the lands.” Do fishing rights include shellfish? Should the state have the authority to lease and regulate oyster harvesting in Drakes Estero?
In an opinion dated September 30, 1965 from the then Attorney General of the state of California, Thomas C. Lynch, to the Director of the Department of Fish & Game, these questions were answered: “Oysters and shellfish are ‘fish’… and as such are subject to the prerogative of the sovereign to protect and preserve them in such manner and upon such terms as the Legislature deems best for the common good.”
The state’s policy supports shellfish cultivation. The state passed the Shellfish Protection Act of 1993, declaring: “The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Commercial shellfish harvesting is a beneficial use of the waters of the state and, in addition, benefits the economy of the state through the creation of jobs.”
There has been a lot of misinformation propagated by PRNS and environmental groups about what will happen when the current federal lease with DBOC terminates in 2012. The oyster farm operation will not necessarily end in 2012, nor will Drakes Estero become full wilderness in 2012.
The Secretary of the Interior has the right to extend this lease. The enabling legislation for the Point Reyes National Seashore provides: “Where appropriate in the discretion of the Secretary [of the Interior], he or she may lease federally owned land or any interest therein which has been acquired by the Secretary….”
Contrary to what Don Neubacher, Superintendent of PRNS, may claim, Drakes Estero will remain “potential wilderness” after 2012, as it was designated when the Point Reyes Wilderness was enacted in 1976. One of three reasons that the Estero was rendered “potential wilderness” and why it will remain so after 2012 was the retained fishing rights by the state of California when it transferred title to land to help create PRNS.
I don’t know how or why all of the MPAs provided for the termination of oyster farming in 2012, but I do know that Mr. Neubacher is a stakeholder in the MPLA process and that he claims he will shut down the oyster farm in 2012, although he does not have the authority to do so.
Mr. Neubacher and his staff may have knowingly misrepresented the science relating to oyster growing in Drakes Estero, and for that reason PRNS is under legal investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior. The Inspector General’s report is forthcoming.
It remains to be seen whether the Secretary of the Interior extends the lease to the DBOC beyond 2012. Who is to say what another Secretary of the Interior in another administration might do when it comes to extending the lease?
But regardless of that decision, it is the obligation of the MPLA process to uphold leases granted by the Fish & Game Commission and to follow the policy of the state of California supporting shellfish cultivation.
Bill Wigert is a member of the EAC and Sierra Club, for whom he has done pro bono legal work
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
