Dan Bacher

There is no doubt that John Muir, who fought successfully for the preservation of the Yosemite Valley and unsuccessfully for the preservation of the Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River, and Teddy Roosevelt, the founder of the country's National Parks, would be outraged about these so-called "marine protected areas" being called "Yosemites of the Sea" if they were still alive.

Unlike the corporate "environmentalists," grassroots environmentalists, in their comments regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Marine Protected Area (MPA) proposals covering California’s North Coast Study Region, are now demanding that true, comprehensive marine protection be provided. A 45-day public comment and review period will run through April 16.

“If you can take the time to send in comments on this EIR, please ask why the ‘marine protected areas’ negligently do NOTHING to protect the closed areas from oil drilling, wind and wave industrial projects, ocean mining, navy testing, fish farming, or any other human impacts on the ocean BESIDES throwing the people of California off of their water,” said Ed Oberweiser and Elaine Charkowski, the newsletter editors for the Ocean Protection Coalition. “These are located in areas that are of obvious commercial and economic interest to the very people who conjured up this version of the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act.”

Sometimes, it just ain't what it seems!