Mavericks to Allow Tow-In Surfing
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
The surfing community may be split but the new rule is clear: as of March 1, 2009, tow-in surfing will be allowed during high surf advisory days at Mavericks, California’s most famous big-wave spot, just off the coast of Half Moon Bay.
Finally, a Compromise
The Los Angeles Times reports that surf traditionalists, who prefer to paddle on boards to catch waves, object to the noise, polluting exhaust, and surf-chopping wakes that personal motorized watercraft create. (It’s worth noting that the craft disturb marine wildlife, too.) But a new generation of big wave surfers depend on the crafts to take them to catch enormous waves that surf photographers and spectators love. It’s taken seven years for federal officials, after listening to extensive public comments, to reach a compromise that will satisfy both camps, at least some of the time.
The new rules ban personal motorized watercraft — lifeguards excepted — from three designated and newly expanded marine sanctuaries along California’s northern and central coasts. The vehicles will be allowed high surf advisory days, so that tow in surfers can take advantage of the coast’s highest waves, typically December through March.
No More Chumming and Dumping Untreated Sewage
Additional new rules include a ban on chumming for great white sharks around San Francisco’s Farallon Islands so that tourists in dive cages can get up close to the fish (yikes!), and a ban in protected areas on dumping partially treated sewage water from ocean liners.
Read the plans in full at: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/jointplan/
