| "Our goals were to educate the sheriff's deputies to the damage being done to the environment, train them, and develop an education and enforcement program." | |
| Russ Chilton, Orange County Sheriff's Department |
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Sheriff's deputies are patrolling the beach in Dana Point, California, looking for lawbreakers—people taking crabs, shells, or starfish from tide pools. If you're caught just taking home a few souvenirs, you may get let off with a warning and a lecture about the importance of preserving the marine environment. If you've been looking for a free mussel supper, you could end up with a ticket carrying a fine of $50 to $1,000.
"I never thought in a million years that I'd be overseeing the enforcement of game and fish," says Orange County Deputy Sheriff Russ Chilton.
"We were observing a lot of collecting pressure," says Harry Helling, vice president of the Ocean Institute and director of the Dana Point Marine Life Refuge. "We were observing on the order of over 1,000 people in the refuge at one time, which means that if you were to literally spread them out across the whole distance of the refuge, they would all be touching hand to hand."
Tourists were collecting shells, rocks, and driftwood for souvenirs, he says, and others were collecting mussels, crabs, and lobsters for food, sometimes by "the Hefty bag full."
In 1994, state legislation was passed that prohibits the removal of any object from tide pools and beaches in protected refuges, Helling explains, but the agency appointed to enforce the law was already overwhelmed.
With grant monies in hand, a group of public and private coastal agencies approached the Orange County Sheriff's Department about creating what may be the only program in the country to use local authorities to patrol tide pools.
"Obviously we agreed," says Deputy Chilton. Since sheriff's deputies aren't schooled in fish and game laws, Chilton and four other deputies received special training from the Ocean Institute, a marine research facility. Afterwards, Chilton and another deputy created an enforcement guide that was distributed to every deputy assigned to Dana Point. Working with the Ocean Institute, they also put together a program for the District Attorney's Office and judges so that "when citations come across their desk, they're aware of the program."
"Our goals were to educate the sheriff's deputies to the damage being done to the environment, train them, and develop an education and enforcement program," Chilton says. "It's not a hard-core enforcement program. Deputies talk to people about the tide pools and how important they are, and the damage they can do to the environment by taking things from them. We encourage them to make contact with people, even if they're not violating any laws."
In 2000, the first year of the program, Chilton says deputies did a total of 76 checks at low tide; the checks averaged one to two hours, and constituted 87 hours of directed enforcement. Deputies made contact with 100 people, gave 44 warnings, and issued 14 citations.
"Without a doubt, it's had a positive impact," Chilton says. "The mechanics of the program are not difficult to implement and funding for the program is not extensive. The deputies really enjoy taking a small amount of time and walking the tide pools. It's just a matter of law enforcement and coastal managers meeting together and getting the ball rolling."
For more information about the Dana Point Tide Pool Patrol, contact Russ Chilton at (949) 248-3580, or rchilton@danapoint.org. You may also contact Harry Helling at (949) 496-2274, ext. 310, or hhelling@ocean-institute.org.
