Wednesday May 20, 2026
The Orange County Register —
An effort by a Laguna Beach environmental group to protect a “final mile” of the city’s coastline by extending its marine protected area status to limit fishing will be up for public discussion and input at a regional meeting of the California Fish and Game Commission on Tuesday, May 19.
The meeting in San Clemente will provide commissioners with an opportunity to hear from the public and stakeholders on the proposal, though the commission will not make a decision at this time. Several petitions related to MPAs along the state’s coastline will go before the Ocean Protection Council in June, which is expected to make a broad-based recommendation. The commission is expected to then make a final decision.
“This is a really important opportunity for dialogue of the pros and cons of who benefits and who pays the costs,” said Melissa Miller Henson, executive director of the Fish and Game Commission.
The petition by the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition has already been reviewed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which earlier this year in a 19-page report rejected the proposal, saying there is no scientific evidence extending the local protected area to include South Laguna Beach to the Dana Point border would “meaningfully advance the goals of the MPA” and specifically bucked the coalition’s arguement that the proposal would significantly benefit migrating whales, improve kelp forest health, reduce whale entanglement risk, or enhance enforcement, and may in fact create new enforcement challenges due to less clearly defined boundaries.