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In wake of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary 25th anniversary, local leaders remember the fight

September 9, 2017

Monterey >> When Leon Panetta and a bipartisan coalition in Congress established the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary 25 years ago, it protected the large swath of the Pacific Ocean off the Central Coast from oil and gas exploration while solidifying decades of conservation efforts into federal law.

Known as the "Serengeti of the Sea," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary on Sept. 18, 1992. The largest protected ocean area in the continental United States, the sanctuary stretches from Marin County to the southern end of the Big Sur coast in San Luis Obispo County. It encompasses 6,094 square miles of ocean, an area larger then Yellowstone National Park.

The Monterey Canyon, in the heart of the bay, drops twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and provides a habitat to organisms rarely seen and others that have yet to be discovered.

"In order to make the case for the sanctuary, we relied a great deal on the studies from the (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) on the unique qualities of the canyon," Panetta said. "That canyon was a big selling point."

The diverse ecosystem plays host to 34 species of marine mammals, more than 180 species of seabirds and shorebirds, at least 525 species of fishes and many invertebrates. The kelp forests, coastal wetlands and tide pools attract tourists from around the globe and the sanctuary plays an important role for ocean research.

Decades after marine neurobiologist and Pacific Grove Mayor Julia Platt created the first protected waters in Monterey Bay in the 1930s, Panetta started the fight to create the sanctuary during the Jimmy Carter administration. Not long into his 16 years as a Central Coast congressman, Panetta fought back efforts to open up parts of what later became the sanctuary to offshore drilling.

PANETTA LEADS THE FIGHT

"Leon was a huge champion, I mean he was absolutely at the epicenter of making (the sanctuary) happen," said Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "There was a lot of support generated by groups in the area like Save our Shores and others. And I think the aquarium having opened in 1984, we had a big role because before that people didn't have a window into how rich and diverse the Monterey Bay really is. I think that awareness sparked the support that led to the sanctuary being created."

When President Ronald Reagan's appointee James Watt became secretary of the Interior, he wanted to open up the coastline to drilling. Panetta joined with Republican Rep. Don Clausen, who represented California's Northern Coast, in an effort to protect the area.

"We met with Watt and argued that there were areas that were national treasures and ought to be protected the same way we protect a Yosemite or a Yellowstone park," Panetta said. "I'll never forget on the wall in Clausen's office there was a photograph of the coastline with the ocean beating up against the shoreline and Watt went up to that picture and he facetiously pointed his finger at an area and said, ‘That would be a great, great location for an offshore rig.' I thought, ‘Oh my God, we're going to have a hard time with this guy.'"

Panetta's prescient warning turned to reality in 2008 when President George W. Bush ended an executive order his father, President George H.W. Bush, had put in place in 1990 to ban offshore drilling. Congress allowed its moratorium to lapse as well. But the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was established and protected from oil and gas exploration."I always worried that there would be a time when if gas prices went up dramatically or if we had some kind of Middle East embargo put in place, that the pressure would grow to push for offshore drilling," Panetta said. "While I think the California delegation would always hold tight, that's not to say the rest of the country would continue to support that effort. So I was worried that at some point we might very well lose that moratorium battle."

In 1988, Panetta secured an authorization through Congress to set up the sanctuary after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration decided not to designate Monterey Bay as a national marine sanctuary five years prior.

"I remember asking (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to reconsider but got nowhere," he said. "So I said, ‘I'm going to move this legislatively.' So I introduced legislation to establish the sanctuary."

A GROUP EFFORT

A group of local fishermen, conservationists, community leaders and representatives from businesses sectors including tourism and agriculture put together by Panetta helped craft the law creating the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. He said Sam Farr, then a state assemblyman who later replaced Panetta in Congress before retiring in 2016, and state Sen. Henry Mello were among the many public officials who helped create and protect the sanctuary. After a yearslong battle to establish its boundaries, rules and regulations, the sanctuary was officially established in 1992. Formal dedication ceremonies were held in Santa Cruz and Monterey in 1993.

While Panetta led the way, he said it took support from people in every sector of the local community to get the sanctuary established.

"It was a broad community effort that was involved. … Tourism (officials) were very supportive because they knew offshore rigs would detract from the quality of our coastline, fishermen knew they didn't want to have oil rigs impacting their fishing grounds, environmentalists obviously were concerned about having anything that would impart the quality of life," he said.

AN ‘ECOLOGICAL TREASURE'

Packard said the support and engagement "put Monterey Bay on the map as an ecological treasure" and set up the region's economy being built in ecotourism, including whale watching, kayaking and other recreational activities like surfing and scuba diving, while embracing green business practices and building upon the research institutions that had already been established.

"Monterey Bay has long been a center for marine research institutions, we've got the oldest marine lab on the Pacific coast right next to the aquarium here in Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, … so clearly scientists have known for a really long time that this is a very special place, but the public really didn't have that awareness," she said. "It was the bay itself that inspired those of us that founded the aquarium to have the idea of sharing the bay's bounty with the general public."

Among the biggest changes in Monterey Bay since the process to build the aquarium and establish the sanctuary is the improved water quality, Packard said. Untreated sewage flowed into the bay and the Monterey sardine canneries put huge amounts of fish waste into the water.

"A lot of environmental legislation that happened at a higher level than right here in Monterey Bay (such as the Clean Water Act and banning DDT in the 1970s) had a very positive impact here," Packard said. "That's why we have brown pelicans back here in big numbers. And of course the Endangered Species Act (of 1973) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (of 1972) protected animals like the sea otters and gray whales. For all those reasons, the water along the shoreline and in certain parts of Monterey Bay is definitely cleaner and healthier than it was 30, 40 years ago and we do have a great abundance growing of marine mammals."

THE TELEVISION SPOTLIGHT

PBS and BBC joined forces in 2015 to put a spotlight on the recovery of Monterey Bay.

"Monterey Bay is a very special place that attracts animals from the four corners of the Pacific," Adam White, a BBC filmmaker based in the United Kingdom, said to The Herald before the live series aired. "It's a wildlife spectacle unique in the world. Most of the animals recently made a miraculous recovery. Few people thought they'd recover at all, let alone in the numbers you find here."

After being hunted for their pelts in the late 1700s and early 1800s, southern sea otters were feared to be extinct. About 50 sea otters were found off the Big Sur coast in the 1930s and the population has grown to more than 3,200.

While the bay healed from its nadir decades ago, Packard said scientists who study the area note the biodiversity of the habitat was probably "a whole lot richer" 150 to 200 years ago compared to today.

"It's this problem of what scientists call shifting baselines," she said. "Through the generations we think back to how it used to be and either it's better or worse, but we don't really have a picture of the very long term."

WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO

Threats of overfishing, plastic pollution in the ocean and climate change need to be addressed, Packard said, but progress continues to be made. In addition to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program that helps consumers and businesses make sustainable and ecologically friendly choices, she noted the effort by 19 aquariums to phase out use of plastic products.

"We come in contact with so many millions of people so we always try to focus on things that people can do," she said. "The ocean seems so large, people often ask what they can do to have an impact. … We've really been ramping up our working on (eliminating) ocean plastics, because all of us use so much single-use plastic in our lives."

In addition to larger efforts to protect the ocean, Panetta said a fund to protect the sanctuary will be created at a 25th anniversary gala being held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Sept. 16.

"At a time when there are threats of deep cuts to these programs, hopefully we can help provide the funding necessary to provide the kind of activities that we think are important for the sanctuary to put on for the people of this area," he said. "This is basically a fundraising effort to begin to establish that foundation funding for (the sanctuary)."

TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDER

President Donald Trump requested a federal review of 11 marine sanctuaries and monuments, including the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, in an executive order issued in April. It could lead to the reduction or rollback of any national marine sanctuaries or monuments that were created or expanded in the past 10 years. President George W. Bush expanded the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary by 496,000 acres in 2008 to include Davidson Seamount.

"California doesn't want it. … The politics of California will protect the coastline and the ocean," Farr told The Herald in March.

The original sanctuary declaration is not threatened, but the seamount could be removed by the Trump administration. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Davidson Seamount was the first to be characterized as a "seamount" in 1938 by the United States Board on Geographic Names, It was named in honor of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey scientist George Davidson, a leader in charting the waters of the West Coast. A total of 98,011 comments were made by the public in response to Trump's executive order, including a letter from local business leaders explaining the positive economic impact of the bay,

"This Executive Order is a rejection of a legacy of laws, leaders, and local communities that have long fought to prevent any attempts to drill for oil in our treasured marine sanctuaries," Rep. Jimmy Panetta, Leon Panetta's son, said in a statement.

A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

After leaving Congress, Leon Panetta served in the cabinets of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. As director of the CIA, he led efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. But creating the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary remains high on his list of accomplishments.

"There's not much question, and I've had a pretty long career in public service, but that represented for me one of the proud moments to be able to establish (the sanctuary)," he said.

In the next 25 years of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Packard said carbon pollution and the resultant acidification and warming will be the biggest driver of change.

"Already, researchers here are seeing shifts in the species that occur in the bay over time," she said. "That might not have any measurable impact on humans in the short term, but it's just indicative of the change that's already happening."

As time goes on, those impacts will be felt more severely by the local population. Packard said researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Hopkins Marine Station, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and other organizations are in prime position to study the bay.

"The research community, it's become internationally recognized," she said. "Monterey Bay is probably if not the best studied, certainly one of the best studied pieces of ocean on the planet. That right there demonstrates its value, that researchers flock here."

For researchers and for the general public, Packard calls the Monterey Bay important on a global stature. She said it serves as a model sanctuary.

"We are really fortunate to be able to live on the shores of this amazing piece of ocean and everyone should feel really good about the fact that we've afforded it this protection and there's a lot more to do," she said. "This is a rare example of a place where environmental protection has been done right and we can continue being the model if we work at it."

Tommy Wright can be reached at 831-726-4375.

Issues:Environment