MPA News
Race against time?: Before the seabed mining rush, scientists try to determine which sites need protection
Deep sea mining of minerals is coming. The International Seabed Authority, which governs such mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction, has granted 23 contracts so far for exploration of potential mining sites. Of those contracts, most of them (13) are in just one region: the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ), a 6 million-km2 area swath of the eastern Pacific Ocean. The CCZ, relatively rich in the polymetallic nodules that seabed mining targets, has been in the sights of nations and mining companies for years. Although market prices for seabed minerals are currently too low for exploitation to be cost-effective, that will…
Notes & news: IMCC4 live-blog – Cambodia – SIDS – World Heritage sites – Arctic MPAs – High seas treaty – Big versus small MPAs – Healthier coral reefs – MPA News vault – MPA Science Corner
We are live-blogging the International Marine Conservation Congress MPA News’ affiliated website OpenChannels.org will be at the Fourth International Marine Conservation Congress in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada and will be live-blogging the event. The conference lasts from 30 July to 3 August. You can stay abreast of the conference’s main outcomes, news, photos, and more at www.openchannels.org/chat/imcc4. To protect local fisheries, Cambodia designates first MPA In June, Cambodia designated a 405-km2 MPA — the country’s first purely marine protected area — to protect local fisheries around the Koh Rong Archipelago. The Koh Rong Marine Fisheries Management Area will be multiple-use…
Building the future of MPA enforcement: Project Eyes on the Seas and other high-tech surveillance programs
If you were to build a system to combat illegal fishing, including within remote MPAs, it would most likely feature a way to track two things: where fishing vessels are in relation to the area of interest, and whether those vessels are fishing. Thanks to advancements in technology over the past decade, such systems have become available. Using a combination of satellites and on-board transponders, the systems are empowering a potential revolution in how governments can enforce their rules within MPAs, particularly remote ones. MPA News has reported on some of these systems over the past couple of years when…
The other roles of MPAs, part 3: How MPAs can help address land-based runoff and water quality
The political spotlight that often shines on MPAs has fostered a view among some that MPAs pertain only to addressing the effects of fishing, as that is the role that attracts the most media attention. But that view sells MPAs short. In truth, MPAs can play valuable roles in addressing a variety of non-fishing-related threats facing the oceans. This year MPA News is helping to shed more light on these roles. So far we’ve shown how MPAs can help address climate change (MPA News 17:2) and marine litter (MPA News 17:3). In this issue, we spotlight past coverage – in…
Planning MPAs and creating stable agreements: Lessons learned from California’s Marine Life Protection Act process
By Scott McCreary
MPA planning takes many forms. Some are highly technocratic and depend on command-and-control regulation to be implemented. Others are more "stakeholder-driven" but depend on an ultimate decision-making authority. Still others could be fully consensus-seeking.
Emerging practice suggests that MPAs should be planned in consultation with the full range of affected stakeholders in a region. But exactly how should that consultative planning process be structured and how can it be most successful? This article argues that without proper process design, the outcomes that result from such planning are not always stable.
New techniques for responding to coral bleaching in MPAs
In May 2016, the MPA News staff had an opportunity to snorkel the 306-km2 Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary in northwest Sri Lanka. Located in a sparsely populated area of Sri Lanka and billed as having the most pristine coral reef in the country, the MPA has 156 species of coral. When we got there, it was all completely bleached. The third global coral bleaching event, ringing the world from 2014-2016, has wreaked havoc for many coral reef MPAs (http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov). With climate change, this is likely the new normal. Coral reef MPAs – from small sites like Sri Lanka’s Bar Reef…
Notes & news: Expansion of Papahānaumokuākea – Malaysia – GBR – North America – Benefits of MPAs – Transboundary MPAs – Marine litter & MPAs – MPA Science Corner – MPA News vault
US President Obama considering expansion of Papahānaumokuākea to 1.6 million km2 A proposal initiated by a Native Hawaiian-led group to expand the boundary of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is being considered by US President Barack Obama. The proposed expansion would move the seaward boundary of the MPA from its current 50 nm from shore to the full 200-nm limit of the EEZ. As a result, the 362,000-km2 site would grow to a giant 1.6 million km2 in area – making it arguably the largest MPA in the world. Obama Administration officials reportedly held a recent…
Inside Operation Phakisa, South Africa’s blue growth initiative that is fast-tracking a new MPA network
In February 2016, the South African Government announced its proposal to designate a network of 22 new MPAs in the nation’s waters. The proposed network is newsworthy in itself: if designated, it would increase South Africa’s MPA coverage from 0.05% of its marine waters to more than 5% in one fell swoop. But it represents more than just that. Namely, it is one of the first outputs of an ambitious program to transform the way that all of South African government works. Called Operation Phakisa – for “hurry up” in the Sesotho language – this national process is based on…
The ‘other roles’ of MPAs, part 2: How MPAs can help address marine litter
The political spotlight that often shines on MPAs has fostered a view that they pertain only to addressing the effects of fishing, as that is the role that attracts the most media attention. But that view sells MPAs short. In truth, MPAs can play valuable roles in addressing a variety of non-fishing-related threats facing the oceans. This year MPA News is helping to shed more light on these roles. We started in our last issue by showing how MPAs can help address climate change (“How MPAs can help mitigate impacts of climate change via coastal blue carbon, ‘fish carbon’, and…
Perspective | Re-centralization of marine resource management in Indonesia, and its implications for MPAs
By Handoko Adi Susanto
In 2014 at the end of his term, Indonesia's President S.B. Yudhoyono passed a law that changed the roles of local and provincial governments in marine resource management. Under prior law, district (i.e., local) governments had held authority to manage marine resources out to four nautical miles from the coastline, with provincial governments then managing from the 4-nm line to 12 nm (see footnote). But under the new law, Law No. 23 of 2014, that local authority was transferred to the provincial level. As a result, provincial governments now have authority from the shore to 12 nm – including for exploration, exploitation, conservation, marine spatial planning, and other management of marine resources – and local governments have none.