| When we first decided to try to keep
jet skis out of West Marin’s waters, we realized there were
several paths we could take. Marin County, three state and four
federal agencies all have some jurisdiction over the coastline.
After exploring more than a dozen options involving one or more
of the agencies, EAC’s board decided to go for broke. There
is one federal agency—the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—that holds jurisdiction
over the entire Pacific Coast of Marin County, and all the water
out to and including the Farallone Islands. If we could close
NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
to "Personal Water Craft" (PWCs), twenty-three threatened
and endangered species of wildlife --and we humans--would be forever
protected from noisy, heavy polluting jet skis.
We went for it, filing a petition to ban all PWCs outright, from
the entire sanctuary. The only problem was commerce—upper
and lower case. Lower case commerce came in the form of the jet
ski industry, which saw the closure of 948 square miles of open
water as a terrifying precident, even though Tomales Bay and its
environs had yet to become a major playground for PWCs. The upper
case "Commerce" is the Department thereof, which oversees
NOAA and its eleven marine sanctuaries from its headquarters in Washington,
D.C. We knew from the start that our most challenging opposition
would come from the unseemly alliance of Department of Commerce
trade officials and executives of the jet ski industry, a global
enterprise dominated by three large manufacturers, who throughout
the review process were granted generous access to Commerce officials,
while all doors were closed to EAC and its representatives.
But, though we knew we were in for resistance, we really didn’t
think we’d have to go to court. We did have to, though,
and what should have been a one year policy review process turned
into a six-year struggle through federal courts in San Francisco
and Washington. Thanks to our hard work, public support, and two
brilliant pro bono attorneys, Larry Silver and Kelly Drumm, we
won, finally. So for the forseeable future the most successful
marine sanctuary in the country will remain a quiet and supportive
habitat for human and marine life.
—Mark Dowie
EAC Newsleter, Fall 2001, p.2
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