[PAL]

Paul here, fresh from this week's big MLPA meetings. The first round is in the can and off to the Science Advisory Team for scoring. While we won't have the results for weeks and weeks, maps of these first draft arrays should hit the net in roughly a week - probably around March 12 or 13.

So here's where we stand as I see it. We have three external proposals, two fishing-friendly and one decidedly not so. Of the internal proposals, each workgroup produced one fishing-friendly proposal and one on the other side. None of the proposals is remotely close to finalized. They will likely change drastically once the SAT issues its grades.

The ideas and concepts in the external proposals won't go far unless they are adopted by the RSG work teams, which has happened for the most part. Until the internal proposals finally go public, you can get a good idea of what the internal networks look like by glancing through the externals which MJ linked in the first message in this thread.

The internal fishing-friendly proposals include MPAs at Coal Oil Pt, Santa Barbara; Sycamore Canyon / Pt Mugu; Malibu east of the pier; the southern side of Palos Verdes; a swath off Laguna in Orange County roughly between Newport and Dana; and a large MPA off Del Mar. Catalina included the Farnsworth Bank. Also, the military is closing most of the northern side of San Nicolas Island and two areas off the north end of San Clemente.

Notice the differences between the FIN and UASC maps. It's useful. The FIN plan contains more high protection reserves, with the goal of most efficiently meeting the MLPA's conservation goals. Higher protection equals fewer MPAs. On the other hand, the UASC plan contains catch and release and slot limits in some areas. Now we'll get to see how the Science Advisory Team grades these previously untested MLPA concepts.

Before I move on, I want to note the unprecedented cooperation and teamwork evident in the fishing-friendly proposals. We need it.

Generally speaking, the preservationist proposals include large MPAs at Naples Reef; Coal Oil Pt; Sycamore / Mugu Pt; Malibu including Pt Dume and BKR; the northern and western sides of Palos Verdes; most of the coast between Newport and Dana; the Cardiff area in northern San Diego County; all of La Jolla; parts of Pt Loma; south San Diego bay; and large areas of Catalina and the southern islands.