Guide to California's Marine Life Management Act ~ General Policies of the MLMA

Online Guide To California's Marine Life Management Act

General Policies of The Marine Life Management Act

The MLMA has two sets of general policies. The first applies to all marine life management by the state, while the second focuses more narrowly on general fisheries management policies.

General Policy on Marine Living Resources

The MLMA's overriding goal is to ensure the conservation, sustainable use, and restoration of California's marine living resources [7050(b)]. This includes the conservation of healthy and diverse marine ecosystems and marine living resources [7050(b)1]. To achieve this goal, the MLMA calls for allowing and encouraging only those activities and uses that are sustainable [7050(b)2]. Although most of the MLMA is devoted to fisheries management, it also recognizes that non-consumptive values such as aesthetic, educational, and recreational are equally important [7050(b)3]. Unlike previous law, which focused on individual species, the MLMA recognizes that maintaining the health of marine ecosystems is important in and of itself. The MLMA also holds that maintaining the health of marine ecosystems is key to productive fisheries and non-consumptive uses of marine living resources. Furthermore, as in other areas of the United States and the world, restoration of depleted fisheries and damaged habitats has become a pressing need.

The words "sustainable" and "sustainability" have inspired mountains of reports and hours of discussion among fisheries managers around the world. At 99.5, the MLMA provides its definition. A sustainable fishery is one in which fish populations are allowed to replace themselves. The MLMA recognizes that populations of marine wildlife may fluctuate from year to year in response to external environmental factors, such as climate and oceanic conditions. A sustainable fishery also ensures that marine wildlife can continue providing the "fullest possible range" of economic, social, and ecological benefits. Unlike traditional definitions of sustainability in fisheries, the MLMA's definition calls for maintaining biological diversity. It is fruitless to try to identify exact measures for determining how sustainable individual fisheries are. The Legislature wisely decided to describe the features of a fishery management system that would produce sustainable fisheries. The Legislature's formulation reflects years of debate in this country and internationally on how to develop a new, more sustainable approach to fisheries.

In Section 7056, the Legislature identified the features it believed would provide the range of benefits that Californians seek from marine wildlife-sustainable fisheries. These features include limiting bycatch, rebuilding depressed fisheries, maintaining long-term benefits rather than opting for short-term benefits, making decisions in the open, basing decisions on scientific advice and other useful information, and adapting to changing circumstances. In so many words, the Legislature said that doing these few things would lead to the kind of fisheries that Californians desire.

General Policy on Marine Fisheries

Within this overall policy on marine living resources, the MLMA sets the State's policy for marine fisheries [7055; 7056]. Both commercial and recreational fisheries are to be managed to assure the long-term economic, recreational, cultural and social benefits of the fisheries and the marine habitats upon which they depend. With this in mind, the MLMA establishes a marine fishery conservation program in order to:

Achieve sustainable use of fisheries,
Ensure conservation,
Promote habitat protection and restoration,
Rebuild depressed stocks,
Prevent overfishing, and
Develop information for management decisions.

The policy also calls for reasonable sport use and encourages the growth of commercial fisheries [7055(c) and (d)]. The primary management goal of the fishery management system is sustainability [7056]. Unlike other natural resource laws that call for balancing various objectives without indicating any priority, the MLMA places sustainability above other objectives of the act. For instance, while the MLMA calls for considering the interests of fishing communities, it does not place these interests above the long-term sustainability of marine populations. As a result, decisions under the MLMA may cause some sacrifice in the short-term. However, the economic and social dislocation caused by collapsed fisheries around the United States shows the long-term costs of avoiding such sacrifices to satisfy short-term needs. By shifting from a short-term to a long-term perspective, the MLMA fosters more stable and productive fisheries in the future.

The fishery management system is to pursue sustainability by achieving a number of objectives, two of which give more detail about sustainability. First, the long-term health of the resource should not be sacrificed for short-term benefits. Second, depressed fisheries are to be rebuilt to the highest sustainable yields allowed by environmental and habitat conditions. There are several other important features of the MLMA's provisions on sustainability in fisheries. First is the emphasis on acting for the long-term rather than short-term benefits. For instance, the MLMA recognizes commercial, recreational, cultural, and social benefits. Also, the MLMA recognizes the close linkage between the health of many fish populations and their habitat. Unlike management of most fishing activities, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Commission and Department, protecting and restoring habitat will require working with many other agencies, whose mission may or may not include the conservation of fisheries.

The MLMA recognizes the importance of commercial and recreational fisheries to Californians and the need for allocating marine living resources fairly. The MLMA calls for maintaining fish populations that are sought by sport fishermen at levels that will provide satisfying levels of sport use [7055(c)]. At the same time, the MLMA encourages the growth of commercial fisheries [7055(d)]. The MLMA requires that the effects of regulations be allocated fairly between commercial and recreational fishermen [7072(c)]. It is worth repeating, however, that these objectives are secondary to ensuring that fisheries are sustainable.