Members: “The expansion of the Sanctuaries is too important an accomplishment for it to be stalled”
WASHINGTON°©-Today, California Reps. Jared Huffman, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Jackie Speier, Anna Eshoo and 13 other members of the California Congressional Delegation voiced their strong support for the proposed 2,771 square mile boundary expansion of the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries. In today’s letter, submitted as part of the official public comment period, the members also stated their support for a permanent ban on offshore drilling and seabed mining throughout the expanded Sanctuaries.
“We are writing again in support of the boundary expansion up the Sonoma coast north to Mendocino County, and in strong support of placing a permanent ban on offshore drilling and seabed mining and protecting against potential pipelines,” the members wrote. “The expansion of the Sanctuaries is too important an accomplishment for it to be stalled by separate regulatory changes, which raise a number of potentially controversial issues not directly related to the expansion.”
The Congressional signers of the letter represent an unbroken stretch of the Northern California coastline from Santa Cruz County to the Oregon border. The proposed boundary area expansion covers the offshore coastal area from Bodega Bay in Sonoma County to a point just north of Point Arena in Mendocino County, an area represented in Congress by Congressman Huffman. Map of expansion here:
The members also indicated their desire for NOAA to move quickly to expand the Sanctuaries while not making changes to existing fishing regulations within the Sanctuaries.
In addition to Huffman, Pelosi, Speier and Eshoo, the letter was signed by Reps. Mike Thompson, Barbara Lee, Mike Honda, Alan Lowenthal, Doris O. Matsui, George Miller, Adam Schiff, Mark Takano, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Julia Brownley, Linda T. Sanchez, and Zoe Lofgren.
Full text of the letter here. Final Marine Sanctuary Letter 6.18
Special thanks to Richard Charter