Protect the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS)
Our chapter, being within the boundaries of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), supports the responsible use of Personal Water Craft (known as"PWC" or "jet skis") within the boundaries of the Sanctuary, including their use in the four existing offshore zones established by NOAA for PWC use. We also support the use of PWC for life rescue operations by public agency personnel. However, due to the documented adverse impacts caused by PWC on marine life and their habitats, including habitats for harbor seals, sea otters and seafaring birds, we oppose PWC use in all other areas of the sanctuary outside the four existing offshore zones.
Please click below to read the Resolution adopted by The Surfrider Foundation National Board in June 2006.
This page also provides access to published studies, research documents, and court decisions on the adverse impacts caused by PWC on marine life, including the science-based findings that led NOAA to ban all PWC use in the adjacent Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in 2004.
For more details on this campaign, contact Tim Duff, San Mateo County Chapter.
The National MPWC policy on the responsible use of MPWC within the boundaries of the MBNMS; 1) recognizes that not all waterways are appropriate for use of MPWC; 2) restricts the use of MPWC in order to reduce negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems, and 3) supports restrictions and buffers to reduce negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems in sensitive ecological areas.
The document was released October 6, 2006 by NOAA. See pages 59054-56 where the proposed new definition for PWCs is located. NOAA explains that this proposed new definition is required to close the regulatory loophole necessary to protect the MBNMS and sensitive nearshore habitats from the adverse impacts of PWC.
Motorized Personal Water Craft (PWC) within the boundaries of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
This is the San Mateo County Chapter of Surfrider position statement recommending the responsible use of PWC’s in the MBNMS, except for rescue operations of public agencies.
Federal Register/Vol. 68, No. 175/Monday, September 10, 2001 – Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Regulation (i.e. ‘responsible use’) of the Operation of Motorized Personal Watercraft in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (‘GFNMS’)
NOAA produced this report to explain why it recommended a responsible use of PWC use in the GFNMS. “Comment 13” addresses the issue that banning PWC’s is “unfair discrimination” by saying, “NOAA disagrees. No other vessel type has demonstrated so many wide and varied detrimental (i.e. ‘environmental’) aspects as MPWC.”
Personal Watercraft Use in the San Juan Islands by the San Juan County Planning Department – Aquatic Resources Conservation Group
This report helped convince the Washington State Supreme Court that San Juan County should be supported in its responsible use of PWC’s. Many animal species found in the San Juan Islands are also found in the MBNMS, such as Murrelets, Dolphins, Harbor Seals, and Sea Lions. The report introduces “auditory masking” as the major threat by PWC’s to Marine Mammals. Interestingly, the quieter the PWC the more dangerous it is!
In the Supreme Court of the State of Washington
In 1998, the WA Supreme Court said, when it supported the PWC ban in the San Juan Islands, “On the whole, the court found that PWC’s are different from other vessels, and that counties do have the authority to treat them differently.” “It would be an odd use of the public trust doctrine to sanction an activity that actually harms the waters of this state.”
In the Superior Court of the State of Washington…” “Declaration of Dr. Julia Parrish” (followed by) “Declaration of Dr. Roger Gentry
These are two court declarations, supporting the ban of PWC’s in the San Juan Islands, done respectively through the University of Washington and NOAA National Marine Mammal Laboratory. The first states that research has shown that, “San Juan County has good reason to be concerned over the effect of Jet Skis on the Island’s bird colonies.” The second states that regarding the negative impacts of jet skis on marine mammals, the “unpredictability of these (jet ski) sounds is probably more aversive (to marine mammals) than any single physical feature of the sound (of jet skis)…”
Short-Term Effects of Boat Traffic on Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops Truncatas, Sarasota Bay, Florida
The species of Bottlenose Dolphin studied in this report is the same that frequents the entire MBNMS coastline, in particular the San Mateo and Santa Cruz County coasts, in pods typically of three to seven. This Chicago Zoological Society and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution report provided detailed charts to substantiate their findings that, regarding Dolphin safety, “…jet skis are not acoustically detectable at the same distances as other types of watercraft. If dolphins are unable to detect jet propelled vessels until they are relatively close, then they would not be afforded the same opportunity to adjust their behavior in anticipation of the boat approach as they might for a nosier vessel. Again, lack of predictability (from jet ski use) translates into greater (Dolphin) disturbance…” It is not inconceivable that Bottlenose Dolphins could be disturbed enough by PWC’s to leave parts of the Santa Cruz and San Mateo County coastline altogether.
Conservation Law Foundation
The section on “Effect on Wildlife” of PWC’s is the most applicable to the MBNMS. Although it studied a fresh water loon, marine loons are a common form of birdlife in the Sanctuary. Once again, versus other types of “boats”, “While loons may acclimate to passing motorboats that remain largely in established boating routes, jet ski operators are prone to repeated passes of the same area…” “Disturbed loons are likely to shift away from …nesting behavior…”
In the Court of Appeal of the State of California
In July of 2002 the CA Court of Appeal supported Marin County’s ban of PWC’s from all County waters. This court case is extremely important because it lays the groundwork for legally countering the most commonly used arguments of the PWC lobby. Page 18 is especially interesting because it reiterates that “PWC destroy the outdoor experience for other recreationalists … by creating noise, hazardous conditions, congestion and causing wildlife to flee.”
Effects of Motorboats and Personal Watercraft (PWC) on Flight Behavior Over A Colony of Common Terns
This study by Rutgers University, using excellent quantified data, showed PWC “…should be managed to reduce disturbance to colonial-nesting species…”
Motorized personal watercraft (PWC) on Tomales Bay
Audubon Biologist John Kelly references his own studies on PWC use in estuaries. He refers to his “soon-to-be published data which destroy the myth that the impacts of PWC’s are no worse than those of motor boats.”
Preliminary Assessment of Potential Impacts of Personal Watercraft (PWC – “Jet Skis”) on the Marine Wildlife in the San Juan Islands
The Curator of Science Services, Friday Harbor Whale Museum, wrote this report. As with the report on dolphins (f. dolphins.pdf), he also concludes that compared to motor boats, PWC’s are much “worse for wildlife because they (wildlife) have no warning that the vessel is coming until it is practically right on top of them…”
A letter sent from the President of the Board of Directors at Fitzgerald Marine Life Refuge (Janie Miller) to the Sanctuary Advisory Council Chair (Stephanie Harlan) urging the responsible use of Personal Watercraft in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
PWC Statement issued by the Fitzgerald Marine Life Refuge citing specific issues related to the use of PWCs within the refuge.
Please feel free to ask us for any additional information you would like.
Tim Duff <Tim@SurfriderSMC.Org>
Surfrider Foundation, San Mateo County Chapter