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April 2006 |  |
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Protecting our ocean wilderness through public stewardship www.farallones.org |  |
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IN THIS ISSUE In the beginning: John Burton reflects Harbor Seals threatened at Children's Beach Volunteer Spotlight: In the News: Salmon Season Closures Wildlife Spotlight: 
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In the beginning: John Burton reflects twenty-five years later on the events that led to the Sanctuary's designation
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© 2005-2006 Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. All Rights Reserved. |
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John Burton recently ended a 35-year legislative career as the second most powerful politician in California, stepping down from presiding over California’s upper house in 2004 because of term limits. During his term in Congress in the early 1980’s John Burton pushed through congressional legislation creating the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Our executive director, Linda Hunter, asked John Burton about his involvement with the designation of the Sanctuary. 
Harbor seals can be seen at many points along the Californian coast as they spend a significant portion of the day hauled out on beaches and rocks getting essential rest for molting and giving birth. The most southerly pupping haul out site (rookery) in California is at La Jolla on a small beach cove, known locally as Children’s Pool Beach. Seals at La Jolla are threatened because of a heated dispute about beach access rights and repeated violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
The unthinkable has happened: the Salmon Season was partially closed this year due to record low numbers of Chinook or King Salmon predicted to spawn on the Klamath River. There isn’t a shortage of salmon overall, just a shortage of the Klamath river population. The cause? Dangerously low waters in the Klamath River that doom the salmon that come back to their birthplace to spawn. Now the local Salmon fishery will be decimated, but the Klamath salmon won't survive without measures taken to raise the water in the river. 
From the tropical waters off South America, to the frigid waters surrounding the Aleutian Islands, marine animals such as penguins, salmon, blue and humpback whales depend on krill, small shrimp-like marine invertebrates, to provide the mainstay of their diets. The importance of the krill’s influence on the world’s marine ecosystems makes them a “keystone” species. Nearly every marine animal depends either directly upon krill or upon animals that feed primarily on krill. Without krill, there would be no blue whales in the Gulf of the Farallones, and many fish, marine mammals and seabirds would face extinction.