Farallones to manage County coast

Wilson is the attorney for the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. The association is a nonprofit that helps manage the resources managed by the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary - a government agency.

The association founded a beach watch program four years ago after an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay found its way to the San Mateo County coast and conducts biological surveys every two-to-six weeks. Those surveys, Wilson said, are often the first indicators of off-shore problems since birds often bring evidence of oil spills or illegal dumping to the shore.

The County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of the shift at their Nov. 7 meeting, but the U.S. Congress will make the final designation during their next legislative session. Shifting the oversight from Monterey to the local agency just made sense, according to Supervisor Rich Gordon.

"In a sense it's scientific. It will provide better management because it will work more directly with the area," Gordon said. "Monterrey is such a huge territory - it goes south to way beyond Monerrey to even Big Sur - which is a huge area to manage."

But the idea is not without detractors.

Former Half Moon Bay Councilmember David Iverson said the current system is working fine and wonders why the change is necessary.

"Fishermen, ranchers and farmers have always been relunctant to see any additional regulations and the [Monterey] plan has been around since 1992," he said.

The county adopted the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary eight years ago. That action, FMSA Executive Director Maria Brown said, was largely supported since FMSA did not have the resources to protect the shoreline.

Including San Mateo County in the Farallones area is a natural fit at this time, Brown said, since both her organization and the FNMS have the resources to enhance protection. Although Brown describes both Monterey's sanctuary program and the Farallones sanctuary program as "sisters," she said the San Mateo County shore is actually part of the Farolles ecosystem.

"At times there is a freshwater plume that reaches both north and south from the San Francisco Bay and there is also a gyro effect from water that bounces off the point down there," she said.

By switching management, the Farallones sanctuary will be able to fund additional public outreach programs by hiring an educator who will explain the fragile ecosystem in school visits and at public events.

"By emphasizing the importance of the sanctuary and the resources out there and how they're interconnected, people can see how changing the oil in the driveway affects the salmon they find in the grocery store," Wilson said.