You Left a Public Comment. Now What?

0:00This week you've been following a process for the California Marine Protected Areas Network that we've been covering all on the episode from Monday to today's episode. And we've been talking about a lot of different things. And you know, one of the calls to action that I've been asking is for people to, you know, put in their public comment for the meetings or show up to the meetings. But what happens after the meetings? Like how do you know what the outcomes are and how do you make sure you can follow all the rules? I think that's the big thing because what happens like the coverage stops and you're with the most practical question of all, like does anything actually change for you? Does anything actually change for me? How would I even find out? And to be honest, we're going to provide that on his plane answer with a couple of question and answers that we're going to go through on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Because this is what this podcast is for. I want to make sure that you can get the decisions that you can get the answers that you deserve when you follow this type of process. Because there's one thing about for me and others to ask you to participate within a specific process of public comment period, show up to a public meeting.

1:00But you got to know the answers, right? That's the big question. That's the big thing with all this. You're doing it for change. How do you know what happens with the change and how do you follow the change and make sure the change is implemented? You're following the rules, all that kind of stuff. We're going to talk about that on today's episode of How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. I'm a marine biologist, a science communicator, the Ocean Communications Manager for a consulting firm called Pisces Oceans, Reheal, Ocean Project 16 so they can have a positive impact on the ocean. And we love doing that. And this is what I love doing. I love talking about ocean stuff, but this I'm very excited about this episode because this is where you and I are going to go through and try to get rid of that uncertainty of when things are asked of you and you don't really know the answer because sometimes an organization will ask you to do something. They may not communicate to you whether things have changed or not or you're not on their email list. So you don't get the updates or, you know, maybe you're not hooked into their social media and you don't get the updates. There's a lot of uncertainty that goes on and they've asked you to do a lot of the

2:01rest you take time out of your day to do something for the ocean. So you want to make sure that you find what actually happens. I'm going to help you through that process by answering a few questions. The first thing to answer is like, how would I know what's actually allowed at a specific marine protected area? There are 124 marine protected areas in the network in California. So just to give you how you can find that information, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains the authoritative, current maps and regulations for every MPA in the state on its own MPA programs. Pages will link to that in the show notes. And it matters because like the news coverage of a decision stops after once they tell the listener. And so you can go to this site and you can go on this to make sure that you can see the actual line by line rule for the specific spot that you care about. The state's own regulation pages are the only source that's guaranteed current once a rule changed formally takes shape. Now that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to go up fast.

3:02That doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen, but it's going to happen at some point. And you'll be able to check that and people would can update you on that. Or if you just check it on a regular basis, you can always do that. To be honest, you can have something like AI to give you a form of like check the website every day and give you an update once that that's been updated. All right, let's go to question two. So let's talk about like what actually changes after a commission votes on a petition or proposal. So this next meeting in October that we talked about in the in Monday's episode with Anupa, there's going to be a change after they're going to vote on specific petitions, whether they're going to go through or whether they're not going to go through. And if they do go through what's going to be changing? How do you actually find out what actually changes? So the commission decision isn't the final step approved changes to the any MPA boundaries or rules go through the state's formal rulemaking process before they're legally in effect. And the updated regulations get published once that's complete. So there's a real like sometimes multi month gap between the commission

4:03approve this and like this is now an enforceable rule. So you know, it's something that you have to be aware of government work slow. They work slow for a number of different reasons. Some people are like, wow, they just don't work hard. That's not true. It takes time to make these decisions. Once it goes to the approval, they have to go through the nuances of making sure it fits within the law. I covered something interesting yesterday. How Canada, the country, my country has ratified the high seas treaty. And it took a while from 2023 to now almost 2027 or at the end of 2026. And it took a while because it takes a while to ratify it because you have to put it in the laws. You have to make sure that every part of the high seas treaty, if it's going to be accepted by Canada ratified by Canada, you have to make sure that is put forth. Now they had already signed on to agree to the bill. Then they had to ratify it. Now it's in the laws. It's going to there's going to be line by line items in the law to make sure that we are accountable for that. And so the same thing happens with the state process in California. There is a gap between when it's actually approved and when it's enforceable because they have to put it into law that takes time.

5:05It has to go through Congress to the Senate. I'm not sure the full state process is because I'm again, I'm Canadian, but they have to go through that legal process to make sure it goes through. That takes time. It does take time. And sometimes you wish it goes faster, but it does take time and it's important that it does, like that makes sure that they're doing things, you know, by like they're actually taking it seriously. Now here's something that's interesting. The question, the third question is, how is any of this actually enforced? And I think this is kind of cool because this is something a way that you can participate in because there is an organization called MPa watch. I covered this on either on the podcast or on ocean decoded. I'm not sure on my YouTube channel. MPa watches the thing statewide citizen science network coordinate with the California Ocean science trust and supported by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It trains ordinary volunteers to walk designated stretches of coastline and record human activity in and around the MPAs, both inside the protected boundary and outside of it just for comparison. And the volunteers use standardized data sheets.

6:08And the data they collect is used directly by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other enforcement and research partners. So as of the program's own recent figures, more than 2,000 volunteers have been trained, monitored more than a hundred and 1815 sites covering roughly over 187,000 acres of protected and surrounding waters. And so like the enforcement of these protections is not invisible and not purely through theoretical. We are seeing on the ground citizen science programs that are monitoring people. And it's actually shown that people are using the MPAs when they're allowed to use the MPAs. And that's that's value that's valuable information that gets its social science around the MPa design and how things are being adhered to if things aren't being adhered to and there's more enforcement need certain areas. Then that's always great. But also just to see how people are actually using these Americans value their protected areas, their parks. It's very difficult for any government agency to try and destroy that even though they do try.

7:08But Americans love it. Doesn't matter what side of the aisle you fit on or you side on. It's it's pretty tough to change national parks and state parks because Americans love their nature and they use it, which is great, which is amazing. I don't think a lot of people would think that. But yeah, their parks are phenomenal and they're well taken care of as long as it doesn't get touched by federal state governments and people a lot of times don't allow that. So that's really great. Okay, last question that we're going to go through. What happens to a petition or proposal that doesn't get adopted this cycle? So this can happen a lot. Like petitions will get put forth and maybe at this time the commission doesn't think that this is the right time to do this or maybe they don't like the petition. Whether we agree with the decision or not, it doesn't mean it's the end of that petition. Adaptive management, the same mechanisms that we discovered in earlier in this week on Monday. The same mechanism that we discussed earlier on Monday's episode with the NUPA is an explicitly recurring process written into the Marine Life Protection Act. Right. So it's not a single one time event. So it comes up over and over again.

8:08So it proposes that doesn't move forward in this review cycle. It's not permanently closed. It can be revisited or submitted in the future. Adaptive management cycles as new sites and you monitoring data and new community priorities developed. So maybe it doesn't fit within this time within this session, but it'll fit within the next adaptive management process. Now whether that's five years, 10 years, I think they do it every 10 years. That's not great if it doesn't go through, but you hope that it could be resubmitted. And this is how conservation works. You don't get it accepted. You go back, maybe add some more information, prepare it a little better. Not to say that it wasn't prepared well in the first time. And then hopefully maybe the commission changes or somebody on the board who doesn't like the proposal, but maybe that person changes that goes in or maybe they have a change of heart. And then maybe the next time the proposal goes in, it's a bit of a science and a little bit of luck and a little bit of timing on a lot of these things. And it can be tough. It can be tough to not get your proposal or petition submitted. They had quite a number of petitions submitted this in this process. Not every one of them is going to be used. You just hope that the ones that should be prioritized are going to get

9:11prioritized. And that's really up to the petitioners and to make sure that they stand up and they, they're allowed to speak and they feel safe to speak. That apparently did not happen last meeting. Hopefully this meeting in October that happens. Hopefully that will go through. So the big thing here, you know, is that there are processes for MBA design. It's not just science. We've talked about it all week. It's not just a science thing. Yes, data gets put in. It's very important to identify areas using a science based approach, but it's not just the natural science data that goes in. There's social science data like how people feel about it. Who's proposing these types of MPAs? Why are they important? Are they connected with other MPAs that are in the network and like in from a biological standpoint? So our rock fish larvae going from one MPa down the coast to another MPa. Maybe that should be protected too because that is a sink of this type of larvae. And that's where they settle down. So they should be connected and both be protected. Are there certain kelp areas that are doing well, doing well in MPAs and

10:12doing well outside MPAs? Maybe they should become MPAs if they're really important. All these different things change. And there's a process for that. Adaptive management plays a big role. The way people are allowed to speak and the environment around that and how open and honest it can be is always tough to handle, but it should be handled properly where everybody feels safe to have a say. That's really what it comes down to. It doesn't seem difficult to do, but people's emotions get really wrapped up in these situations because their livelihoods at stake not to make an excuse, but it is something that happens. And it's important to make sure that everybody all groups, no matter what they look like, whether from that they get a say in this area because they're all part of the same network of MPAs and it's all going to affect them. And I think that's really important. One of the things you can do is join MPa watch. If you're in California, you can join MPa watch. The nearest program near you sign up as volunteer. It's real, right? It's an existing way to be a part of the enforcement and monitoring. And you can just see maybe I have a chance to go to all these MPAs that you never really would have thought of before.

11:13So to be able to monitor like if there's access still available, if people are using it, what people are doing outside the MPa, maybe interview people, it's a lot of fun to be able to be a part of this and you feel better. But so plus it gets you out in nature. I think that's really important. This process for MPAs, it's an open process. It's a real timeline. There's data that's involved and it's made public. There's a real program to join an MPa watch and a real next chance for anything that didn't make it through this time, like in the petitions. So there's always something that can be done. There's always something that you can do. And I think that's part of the process is to make sure that we are all available to do this type of work and to take part whether we're a scientist or not. You know, this is your coastline. This is your land. This is your state. If you're in California and we're in another state that has a similar process, this is up to you to participate. You listen to this podcast. We give you the information. You take that information and now it's up to you to go and implement that and just show up to a meeting.

12:13Just observe. If you don't even have to say anything at that point, you can just observe, see what happens. If you see something that where you can help out, that's great. If not, no worries. Join MPa watch, get part of that process and then you get to know that you are helping in the adaptive management for the series of parks or network of MPAs for the future. And I think that's a really good saying. It gets you into nature. I think that's kind of fun. I wish I had something like that here in the Great Lakes. I wish Canada would start to put MPAs in the Great Lakes. I know they're not marine, but they act like marine. Sometimes they're big lakes and they need protection. So hopefully that'll happen one day. But anyway, until then I want to hear from you. Do you think if you're in California, we have a lot of listeners in California. Do you participate in this? Do you think you would participate in MPa watch? What do you think of the episodes this week? I'd love to hear from you. If you're on Spotify, leave a comment. If you are on one of our social networks, feel free to DM me. LinkedIn probably the easiest way to get a hold of me because I'm on it every day with work. But yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts on that. It'd be great to hear and we can't wait for next week's episode.

13:14We're going to be talking about marine pollution. We're starting off with an interview with Dr. Judith Weiss, who is now retired, but it has had a book out, a second edition book on marine pollution, which is everything you need to know about marine pollution. And that's going to be the dedication for next week. We're going to talk all about the different types of marine pollution and how we can help reduce it. So that's going to be on the bill for next week. Can't wait to talk to you next week. But until then, don't forget to follow. Don't forget to share these episodes with somebody you think will benefit from it. And we'll talk to you next week. Have a great weekend and have a great day. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. You've been watching the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Talk to you soon and happy conservation.