Message from the Director
January 2008—My message last year mentioned that these are exciting times for many of us engaged in coastal issues in California. That excitement continued through 2007 as new opportunities and challenges arose for California, a national leader in coastal policy, research and education. As you will discover in this directory, California Sea Grant remains deeply engaged in many groundbreaking activities within our state.
Progress continues on West Coast regional activities. The tri-state agreement among the governors of Washington, Oregon and California is moving forward with the development of an Action Plan. The four West Coast Sea Grant programs held more than a dozen workshops in 2007 to help identify the public view of the coastal research and information needs of the three states. This invaluable advice from our concerned citizens not only helps shape where the regional agreement is headed, but provides new guidance for the future direction of California Sea Grant. Further, the regional activities support the concept of a seamless research-outreach continuum described in my message of three years ago. That continuum now goes beyond California Sea Grant and embraces coastal research and outreach efforts on a regional basis.
The coastal challenges facing the state and region continue, although with a shifting emphasis. Whereas global climate change appeared as a long-term threat just a few years ago, alarmingly we are now facing these problems with increasing urgency. Issues such as sea-level rise, ocean acidification, changing precipitation patterns and species range adjustments require urgent research attention and answers. California Sea Grant has moved deeper into partnership with the state of California working with the Ocean Protection Council to fund critical research on these topics. Yet none of the traditional issues such as aquatic species invasions, water quality, coastal development, decline of fisheries and habitat loss have gone away. The need for focused research and outreach remains as strong as ever.
While addressing the issues mentioned above, the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs) has taken on a new life this past year. California has moved forward at a rapid pace to designate a suite of new coastal MPAs. With the implementation of MPAs along the Central Coast of California in April 2007, the state is forging ahead to design a complete set of coastal MPAs to be implemented by 2012. Yet there remains much to learn about these MPAs. Do they achieve the desired objective of protecting ecosystem health? What is the impact of the displacement of the fishing fleet? Can we truly protect these locations so that they will not become merely “paper” MPAs? Again, California Sea Grant has been drawn into this process by partnering with the state to begin crucial work on the initial characterization of California’s Central Coast MPAs.
In the following pages you will find information on California Sea Grant’s increasingly complex mission. I encourage you to explore in depth many of these projects and activities. As such, I welcome you to join with California Sea Grant as we move forward.
Russell A. Moll, Director
California Sea Grant
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