Marine habitat group subpoenas experts

Alex Coolman

The group that maintains a marine habitat in the waters off Newport Beach

filed subpoenas Wednesday to obtain expert testimony that it hopes will

help save the habitat from being destroyed.

The Marine Forests Society, which has maintained an offshore aquacultural

habitat since 1988, filed subpoenas for the testimony of two officials

from the state Department of Fish and Game and a California Coastal

Commission environmental specialist, said Rodolphe Streichenberger, the

founder of the group.

Streichenberger said he hopes the input of the three men will help the

Marine Forests Society overturn a cease and desist order the Coastal

Commission issued last week.

If not overturned, the order calls for the underwater structure,

constructed of tires, plastic jugs, PVC pipe and other materials, to be

disassembled within 60 days.

But Streichenberger thinks expert opinion will prevent that from taking

place.

“At the [Coastal Commission] hearing, there were no technicians,” to

speak on the project’s behalf, he said. “We want the testimony of

technicians.”

Fish and Game senior biologist David Parker, one of the men the group has

asked to testify, responded to Wednesday’s move with a mixture of

surprise and skepticism.

Parker on Thursday said he had not been told the subpoena was filed and

that the Department of Fish and Game had fairly limited contact with the

Marine Forests Society over the years.

“All I really know is that they apparently have placed materials there

without the proper permits and other approvals that are needed to place

materials on the ocean bottom,” Parker said.

In general, he added, Fish and Game wasn’t enthusiastic about placing

tires on the ocean floor.

“In our own experience, we have not used tires in any of our reef

programs for decades now,” he said. “We prefer the very stable,

long-lasting materials like natural rock or various kinds of concrete

rubble.”

The other officials whose testimony the group hopes to obtain, Fish and

Game aquaculture coordinator Robert Hulbrock and California Coastal

Commission staff ecologist John Dixon, could not be reached for comment

Thursday.Ronald Zumbrun, the attorney for the Marine Forests Society,

said he hoped expert input would contradict what he called

“unsubstantiated comments” about the marine habitat made by Coastal

Commission staff at last week’s hearing.

He said some of the criticisms made of the habitat, such as the

suggestion that its tires might release toxics, were “absolutely false.”

But Lisa Trankley, the deputy attorney general who is representing the

Coastal Commission in this case, said she was skeptical about the

potential for overturning the cease and desist order.

“I think the Coastal Commission acted on plenty of evidence and that

their decision will be upheld,” she said.

Trankley also noted that Zumbrun has been pursuing legal challenges to

the validity of various Coastal Commission decisions for more than a

decade, a fact that Zumbrun readily confirmed.

“He’s very much a crusader,” Trankley said.