JUDITH COBURN

THE SIX-MILE HIKE OUT TO TOMALES POINT affords a commanding view - the boundless Pacific to the west, Tomales Bay to the east - of how Earth's movements carved out the Point Reyes Peninsula. Hawks soar above meadows where tule elk graze just as they did when the Miwoks roamed these ridges.

But now an all too modern sound, an angry buzzing, often whines above the roaring surf. Binoculars can pick out a jet ski jumping the waves just outside Tomales Bay.
      This isn't Lake Tahoe, where scores of thrillcraft (commonly referred to as personal watercraft - PWCs - or by the brand name "Jet Ski") buzz swimmers, wildlife, and fishermen on summer days. Here only a few machines, privately owned, ply the surf on weekends near the mouth of the bay. No rental operations have been established yet, and if west Marin residents have their way, none ever will be.
      Local citizens recently launched a preemptive strike, calling for a ban on personal watercraft in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. The 948-square-mile sanctuary includes the Point Reyes National Seashore, Tomales Bay, Bolinas Lagoon, and a 30-mile stretch of coastline from Muir Beach to Stinson Beach to Bodega Head, extending offshore to the Farallon Islands. The sanctuary, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, is home to a rich diversity of coastal and marine wildlife, including 23 species of threatened or endangered birds, fish, and mammals.
      In a petition to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates the national marine sanctuaries, the local 1,200-member Environmental Action Committee argues that "the use of jet skis is completely incompatible with the existence of a marine sanctuary created by law to protect `areas of biological significance.' It seems foolhardy and counterproductive to allow loud, obtrusive, high-speed vehicles, with no utilitarian value, into water that harbors such an abundance of rare, threatened, and endangered wildlife."
      The campaign in west Marin opens yet another front in the struggle between those who turn to the wilderness to find silence and serenity, like hikers and kayakers, and those, like snowmobilers, off-road vehicle drivers, and PWC riders, who want wide open space to test themselves and their machines.

 

Conflict and Compromise

IN SCORES OF COMMUNITIES around the country from Hawaii to Vermont, people who live near lakes, rivers, or surf have lobbied for limits on personal watercraft because of concerns about wildlife, personal safety, water quality, and especially natural quiet. Some states have passed or are considering laws that establish age limits, speed and usage limits, and mandatory driver education. The Blue Water Network, organized by San Francisco's Earth Island Institute, has asked Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to ban jet skis in all national parks. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency have adopted restrictions. The $1.2 billion personal watercraft industry has challenged such regulations in courts, with mixed results. In September 1996 it persuaded the Washington State Supreme Court to overturn a county ban in the San Juan Islands, but a ban in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary was upheld.
      More than a million personal watercraft are now in use on U.S. waters, mostly on freshwater lakes, but also in coastal bays and nearshore waters. Most are built for one or two people who stand or sit on the machine; some newer models hold three people. Their ability to move noisily at high speed, come close to shore, and turn on a dime is a big part of their appeal, and also a major cause of complaints against them.
      "They're very unpopular among everyone except those who are riding them," says John Robinson, spokesman for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. "I've taken one out while doing a story for a newspaper, and I must say, it was a ton of fun. The number-one complaint is noise. Two jet skis can tear up the water for miles and really disrupt the tranquillity of a beach."
      What pushed the sanctuary to act on the problem, however, was not noise but "verified reports of people running down marine mammals," Robinson says, adding that one person was prosecuted for aiming his craft at a sea otter in a kelp bed and running it over.
      The Monterey sanctuary banned PWCs, was sued by the industry, prevailed in court, but then sought a compromise. It now permits these thrillcraft in four areas, each about a mile square and about a mile offshore, extending oceanward from the four harbors in the sanctuary. These restrictions apply to PWCs built for one or two persons and capable of moving at over 15 knots per hour (17.25 miles per hour). Some can go as fast as 52 kph (60 mph).
      Scott Kathey, enforcement officer for the Monterey sanctuary, says users don't like the legal zones because they are far from shore and lack good surf. Robinson observes, "Some people adhere to the rules, some do not. We don't know if it's a lack of education or if they are just ignoring the rules."

 

Trouble at Tahoe

THE GROWING POPULARITY of jet skiing has also caused a furor on Lake Tahoe. In 1995, PWCs were involved in accidents that caused six deaths and some 100 injuries on the lake, according to the California Department of Boating and Waterways. Fewer ospreys have been nesting successfully, and "in more heavily used shoreline areas we see birds going inland," says Coleen Shade, associate planner and biologist at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
      The most troubling issue, however, is water quality. The lake is one of only three state-designated outstanding natural resource waters in the west (the others are Mono Lake and Crater Lake in Oregon), and therefore has special protection under the federal Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency permits no degradation. Yet the two-stroke carbureted engines used in PWCs and some other craft dump 25 percent of their fuel unburned into the water.
      In June 1997, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency banned two-stroke engines as of June 1999. The National Marine Manufacturing Association (NMMA) and other groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento on October 30, challenging the agency's authority and the engine ban. John Donaldson, spokesman for the Personal Watercraft Industry Association, an arm of the NMMA, said manufacturers are preparing to meet new EPA fuel-efficiency standards, due to go into effect in 1999, which require graduated fleetwide reductions in emissions. The association also advocates mandatory education and a minimum age limit of 16 for operators of all motorized watercraft.

 

Preemptive Strategy

ON TOMALES BAY, A PUBLIC meeting about the proposed ban drew a standing-room-only crowd of local residents to the Point Reyes National Seashore headquarters in Olema on September 25, 1997. Speakers complained that PWCs disrupt wildlife, pollute the ocean and bay, and disturb the peace.
      Supporting the Environmental Action Committee's petition for a ban were civic and scientific groups ranging from the Marine Mammal Center to the Inverness Yacht Club to the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
      John Kelly, resident biologist at the Audubon Canyon Ranch, told the gathering that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bans personal watercraft in three refuges in Florida, the Key Deer, Great White Heron, and Key West National Wildlife Refuges.
      Other speakers at the Olema meeting quoted from the California Boating Accident Report of 1996, published by the Department of Boating and Waterways, which found that while personal watercraft constituted only 16 percent of registered vessels, they were responsible for 45 percent of all accidents, 55 percent of all injuries, 14 percent of all fatalities, and 23 percent of all property damage. Donaldson contends that these figures are misleading because they do not calculate accidents per hour of use. He says that personal watercraft are in use five times as much as other boats.
      The only opponent of the proposed ban to speak at the Olema meeting was Jeff Akers, who works for Lawson's Landing, where PWCs are launched, and is a member of the Surfriders, a PWC club. He contended that most users are responsible, follow the rules he hands them before they launch, and abide by state laws that require they stay 200 feet from swimmers or from shore in navigable waters. He said he warns anyone who breaks the rules, and has banned three repeat offenders from launching at Lawson's Landing.
      Ed Ueber, manager of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, says he expects to issue a draft rule in February, and another round of public comment will follow before final policy is set. Whatever the outcome, controversies about fast and noisy watercraft - both PWCs and other high-speed boats - are sure to continue along the coast as more and more people crowd the nearshore with a growing variety of motorized waterborne toys. 

Judith Coburn is a writer who lives in west Marin and has written for many national magazines, including the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine.