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Coastal Commission Meeting: 12/13/07

Statement by George Blumenthal
Chancellor, UC Santa Cruz
California Coastal Commission meeting
San Francisco, Ca.
December 13, 2007

Good morning. I’m George Blumenthal, Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to describe the importance of our Coastal Long Range Development Plan. 

If approved, the Plan will guide UCSC’s planning efforts to achieve its research, conservation and public outreach goals at our existing marine sciences research center over the next 20 years.  

These important goals include expanding the Younger Lagoon Reserve, restoring natural habitat, increasing public understanding of the ocean and coastline, and facilitating collaborative efforts between state, federal and University researchers to protect California’s coastal resources.

The plan is the culmination of an eight-year planning and consultation process during which we engaged the City of Santa Cruz and its citizens in multiple discussions and public meetings.

We’ve also worked closely with Coastal Commission staff to address their concerns and create an environmentally responsible plan. The University accepts all of the staff’s suggested modifications. This plan reflects modifications that address sensitive environmental concerns, such as wetlands protection, and includes proactive efforts to restore previously disrupted environments.

The result is a comprehensive document that will provide an extraordinary opportunity for greater coastal access, research, and education, while also restoring and protecting more than 70% of the site. As determined by your staff, the plan before you is consistent with the Coastal Act.

Appropriate and available sites for such specialized research and coastal-dependent uses are rare in the coastal zone. Established 30 years ago, and recently enhanced by an expanded seawater system, UCSC’s Marine Science Campus is ideally located, directly adjacent to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The plan provides opportunities to expand existing collaborative work in marine conservation and resource protection by UCSC’s Long Marine Lab, the state Department of Fish and Game’s Marine Wildlife Center, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Lab, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary staff, The Nature Conservancy’s Marine Initiative and UCSC’s Predatory Bird Research Group.

This network of scientists is working now to understand and protect the oceans and their life.

I offer you one brief example:

Last month, significant numbers of seabirds died in the Monterey Bay.  Originally attributed to a mysterious spill, scientists from UCSC and the California Department of Fish and Game determined the deaths were caused by a very large, harmful algal bloom with effects unlike those ever recognized before.  The existence of the UCSC Marine Science Campus facilitated this collaborative work by UC, state, and federal researchers. 

In his letter supporting this plan, Leon Panetta, co-chair of the Joint Oceans Initiative, writes:

“Coastal policy and management decisions need to be based on sound science and Long Marine Laboratory and its scientists are carrying out the kinds of research on nearshore ecology, marine protected areas, and marine mammals that we need.”

You have additional letters from more of the most influential leaders in coastal research, education and policy in California, including

  • U.S. Representative Sam Farr;
  • Julie Packard, executive director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium;
  • Bill Douros, West Coast Marine Sanctuary Regional Manager;
  • Churchill Grimes, National Marine Fisheries Service Lab Director;
  • Sam Johnson, USGS Coastal and Marine Team Chief;
  • George Somero, Director of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station;
  • Kenneth Coale, Director of Moss Landing Marine Labs;
  • Marcia McNutt, President of The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and
  • Dan Haifley, Director of the O’Neill Sea Odyssey program

The plan also provides important and ongoing public education and access through

  • The Seymour Marine Discovery Center
  • Nearly two miles of new coastal trails, improved transit and bike access
  • 6 interpretive overlooks
  • 70 new “coastal access” parking spaces at key locations
  • Docent-led tours of marine mammal research and Younger Lagoon beach
  • And a Resource Management Plan that will be a model of coastal habitat restoration.

Each year, the Seymour Center introduces more than 55,000 school children and other visitors to the mysteries, beauty and importance of our oceans and coastal environments.

We are committed to making the Marine Science Campus a sustainable, responsible, innovative and accessible public research and education environment.
This plan will enhance our ability to better understand the coastline and the adjacent waters and guide our preservation of this environment.  Restoring and permanently preserving 72 acres of coastal terrace land is part of this effort. 

We have an obligation to the people of the region and the state to optimize our capabilities and our resources and do all we can to understand the oceans, solve the problems humans have created, and to share the knowledge we have developed. To do any less would be a loss of an exceptional location and opportunity.

Thank you very much.