Dear Editor,
From: Colleen S.
Morro Bay
Thank you to Jack McCurdy for the excellent summary of the history of Duke Energy's power plant in Morro Bay. I was one of those citizens who had voted "yes" to a "smaller, cleaner" power plant only to find out after the vote that we had been tricked into believing false promises. We moved to Morro Bay 20 years ago to raise our son in a clean environment, specifically a clean air environment. After the scientific studies were uncovered by CAPE, we learned that a new power plant would greatly worsen the air quality of Morro Bay. We were getting ready to move if a new power plant was built. Thankfully it wasn't. Thank you to Mr. McCurdy and all those who brought the facts out on this important issue. We are looking forward to the third part of his series.
From: Steve Loiseau
Morro Bay
[Response to "Another Viewpoint Regarding Expansion of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary" By Shoosh Crotzer and Colby Crotzer, December 2009]
Good that you printed the arguments for and against the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. This is an issue many well-meaning people are misinformed about.
The first Marine Sanctuary was established at Laguna Beach in 1959, at a time when there was a considerable amount of life around the rocky Laguna coast. The Sanctuary provided a guy with a pickup truck and a job picking up trash from the beach, but did not a thing to stop the flow of polluted seawater laden with the poisonous life-style by-product going down drains that eventually turned the rocks into the barren environment that they are now.
And neither will the invisible boundaries of the MBNMS. Actually this was an idea of the Bush administration, who, in their privatizing madness thought it might a good way to hand over public resources to their vested buddies while making it look like they were shrinking “big guvmint”. They want us to give away our Commonwealth to corporate interests like Packard and Pew and the other corporate entities behind MBNMS masquerading as a large and very powerful ‘environmental group’, wise and capable of “managing” large segments of our coast for us. Even though we are already paying California Fish and Wildlife and a handful of Federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency to do this for us.
With all due respect, the Crotzers are incorrect to posit that MBNMS will stop the dumping of dangerous agents into the ocean. Under existing law, it is already illegal to dump those things the Crotzers mentioned, within the areas MBNMS would cover. However, it is legal to dump those things farther offshore, well outside the proposed boundaries of the MBNMS. And sadly, that would continue.
The #1 problem sea-life along our coast faces right now is the tonnage of pesticide and herbicide runoff from monoculture chemical farming draining from the San Juaquin into the ocean and destroying the plankton curtain; and MBNMS does nothing, nor has any plan to do anything about that. And ironically, some interests backing MBNMS are heavily invested in farm chemical manufacture and use.
MBNMS: is museum environmentalism; a sham that does little in the way of real stewardship; a smokescreen that diverts us from seeing the real problems facing the ocean; and gives our commonwealth away to private interests. And seriously, Mr. and Mrs. Crotzer, would MBNMS improve tourism over what it is now? Would it stop the wind and fog? People will arrive here by the thousands to see… what? The only things we’ve seen the policies leading up to MBNMS do so far is destroy our sport fishing businesses and wipe out a low-consumptive, zero by-catch, hook and line commercial industry that should have been held up as a model for what sustainable fishing could be.
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From: John Flaherty
Los Osos
I am not opposed to hunting in general, just hunting on Morro Bay. Hunting is most appropriate in areas away from population centers where there are not many other recreational users of the land or water. Morro Bay no longer meets these criteria.
Prior to World War II, the town of Morro Bay had just a few thousand people and Los Osos was essentially ranch land. Since the
late 1940's, the combined population of the town of Morro Bay and Los Osos has mushroomed to approximately 25,000 people. Furthermore, use patterns in the bay have changed radically over time. Many decades ago large areas (hundreds of acres) of the back bay were under oyster cultivation and very few people even knew what a kayak was. Many other economic activities (i.e. commercial fishing) were more important than tourism in Morro bay.
Today the situation is radically different. The most important economic activity in Morro Bay is tourism, while commercial fishing and oyster cultivation are only a tiny fraction of what they once used to be. Four different businesses rent kayaks on the bay and there is a thriving kayak tour business that takes out thousands of people per year on the bay.
The town of Morro Bay hosts a annual Winter Bird Festival that regularly attracts about 500 visitors during an otherwise slow winter weekend. These visitors come to Morro Bay for many reasons, but the chance to view a relatively pristine estuary and its wildlife is a major draw for many. Many of these visitors to Morro Bay are under the impression that such an incredible natural resource as Morro Bay is a protected sanctuary and are quite surprised to learn that hunting for geese and ducks is allowed on large areas of the bay.
Hunting in such an environment has all kinds of negative effects. The sound of gunshots on the bay can be heard by most of the residents of Morro Bay and Los Osos, which is upsetting to many who have come here pursuing peace and quiet and a love of nature. Wounded geese and ducks often wind up in the local wildlife rehabilitation center and take time and resources to nurse back to health.
Hunting can also create de facto exclusive use zones at low tide times in the back bay when hunters set themselves up in narrow channels and warn kayakers to stay away, as it is illegal to interfere with hunting according to CA law. This can prevent kayakers from passing through narrow channels to access the sand dunes or other areas of the bay. I would like to see a relatively recent study that focuses on the economic impact of hunting on Morro Bay, both positive and negative. Based on the number of hunters I see on the bay during the hunting season, my hunch is that the Winter Bird Festival brings in more tourism dollars locally than all the hunters combined and that banning hunting would help Morro Bay market itself to the eco-tourism market. A quick look at the marketing efforts of the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce and any of the local hotels will reveal just how much our tourism market depends on the image of Morro Bay as a natural escape.
Therefore, due to population and economic changes, hunting is no longer appropriate on Morro Bay and should be banned.
(Map of Hunting Area in the Estuary)
Continue on to Letters to the Editor, Page 2
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