Death by MPAs
Do the marine protected areas kill people? The answer, at least in Guam, is a resounding yes. The Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council has recently released a comprehensive study which determined that that the rate of drowning deaths among native Chomorro fishermen in Guam has doubled since the creation of their network of marine protected areas (MPAs).
The MPAs for Guam were put in place by a powerful global network of marine scientists who seem to be more powerful than elected governments. The global blueprint to remove man from vast tracts of ocean and deny him access, at least direct access, to marine food was devised in the mid-1990s by panels of marine scientists including our own Steve Gaines, of the UCSB Bren School of Marine Science, and Jane Lubechenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Many fishermen around the globe have been marginalized by this marauding group of well-funded, politically connected, and often ruthless group of self-promoting academics. Various names for this cadre have been tossed around: Big Green, Eco fascists, Eco-terrorists… The one name that seems to have stuck, which I feel best describes the covert shadow tactics of the global marine science industrial complex, is the environmental illuminati or, as many refer to them, E.I. Especially since the corrupt California MLPA process, one cannot deny that an environmental shadow government does exist and operates with scary efficiency, distain for humanity, and lack of respect for the democratic process. They simply feel that the ends justify the means.
The study of deaths caused by MPA’s was conducted by The Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council, which has an interest in learning about the effects of the MPAs, as they are based in Hawaii where a very large network of MPAs are in the works—we can count on MPA-caused deaths in Hawaii in the years to come.
The locals in Guam mainly fish for sustenance to feed themselves and their families. The academics forced the MPA’s on the ethnic Chomorro people of Guam. Of course, as they did in California, the academics took all the most productive, near shore, protected reef areas (just like Isla Vista, Paradise Cove, Sunset Cliffs, and Laguna MPAs). The oceanic land-grab forces the Chomorro people to venture to the stormy windward side of Guam to fish in legal waters. The result thus far has been the deaths of more than 22 people who would not have died if allowed to fish in more protected waters. According to the study, the average rate of death of Chomorro fisherman doubled in the years after the MPAs were implemented. This means that over time, MPAs globally will become mass murderers on the order of Jonestown or the Branch Davidian—in fact, the deaths will be in the tens of thousands.
Is it murder to knowingly allow people to die in this way? I would say it is at least second-degree murder. There is no actual intent, but all who support MPAs certainly have blood of innocents and the hungry on their hands.
How could this be? The biggest problem in the creation of the MPAs is that the idealistic academics involved in the process, as a group, have very little actual experience in and on the water. They do not understanding fishing, boating, or the socio-economic impacts of their actions. The lack of personal oceanic and fisheries experience among the marine science community has led them to make sweeping, unfounded, false claims about the perceived poor health of the ocean resource. The ocean, especially in California, is healthier now than at any time in my 30-year diving and fishing career. Statements to the contrary are nothing more than fear mongering, to get people to support the MPA agenda.
If you think appeasing the MPA monster will stop its advance, think again. Already plans are in place to expand the existing MPAs at the Channel Islands for a third time; they will continue to grow until the backbone of fishing as we know it is broken clean in half. When that happens, I hope we can all eat the good intentions of the marine science folks.
We will see deaths locally as the new wave of MPAs crowds fishermen into smaller areas of productive ocean waters. An example of what happens when divers are exposed to heavy boat traffic is the running over of Larry Skahill at Ledbetter Beach, where he was showing his son how to spearfish. A boat swung around the point at full speed. Fortunately, Skahill saved his son’s life by pushing him down. Unfortunately, the props chewed Skahill to bits, relegating him to a life of wheelchairs and medical bills. I am not saying that happened because of the MPAs—they might have been spearfishing in that area anyway. I am saying that the chance of vessels striking and killing free-dive spear fishers will increase.
The global MPA movement is perhaps the single largest power play in human history—to carve up the world’s oceans and create areas where only the new elite get to visit.
What could possibly be more organic or more sustainable than a man holding his breath in the ocean to take a single fish for dinner? Ask yourself, why would anybody want to stop such a natural activity?
