Marine Life, Redwood Forest Protection

I don’t see the need for the Malibu Marine Refuge (“A Line in the Sand,” Aug. 6), or for a fishing ban in these waters. I have been diving in Malibu for five years and have found no evidence that there is an overfishing problem.

The real environmental problems of the Malibu coast are sewage and encroaching development. Breakwaters contribute to the erosion that robs beaches of their sand. Houses are built on stilts all the way to the waterline. Malibu could be a place where people from Los Angeles enjoy the wonderful Pacific Coast ecosystem, if it were not for the eagerness of the local residents to block access to the beaches.

JUAN-CARLOS MARVIZON

Culver City

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* Regarding the dolphin-protection bill Alexander Cockburn attacks in his July 25 column, “Big Greens’ Double-Dealing Dooms Dolphins”:

In October 1995, all nations currently fishing for tuna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific created a proposal for legally binding annual reductions in dolphins kills, with an eventual goal of zero dolphin deaths. This agreement, the Panama Declaration, replaced a voluntary program that two major fishing countries, Mexico and Ven- ezuela, have threatened to abandon. The starting point for this plan is a limit of 5,000 dolphin deaths annually. Should tuna fishers surpass the limits on dolphin kills under this plan, they must stop fishing, hence selling, tuna. Therefore, the Panama Declaration creates incentives for nations to stay within progressively reduced limits. An added strength is that it would also force nations to reduce kills of other marine life such as sharks, sea turtles, billfish and juvenile tuna in the course of tuna fishing--species which are totally ignored, and frequently killed, under the current voluntary program.

GERRY LEAPE, Ocean Ecology

Campaigner, Greenpeace U.S.

Washington

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* Re Cockburn’s Aug. 2 analysis of deal-making between the Clinton administration and Maxxam Corp., owner of the world’s last unprotected ancient redwood groves, in Headwaters forest:

After its takeover of the Pacific Lumber Co. in 1985, Maxxam cut the old-growth redwoods at triple the previous rate. Remaining now are 5,500 acres of virgin redwood forest. State and federal government biologists contend that Pacific Lumber’s virgin groves and surrounding lands constitute one of California’s three most important habitat islands for the endangered marbled murrelet, an elusive seabird that nests only in big coastal trees.

The waters of Headwaters forest drain to Humboldt Bay, California’s second-largest marine estuary. Scientific assessments show that up to 10% of California’s endangered coho salmon population needs the streams of Headwaters forest to spawn.

It is imperative that the Clinton administration insist on preservation of all six ancient groves in Headwaters forest. Pacific Lumber intends to “salvage-log” inside the virgin redwood groves on Sept. 16.

GREG KING

Environmental Protection

Information Center

Garberville, Calif.