MPA News
Reader Challenge: When Was the First MPA Designated?
The past two decades have experienced a surge in the number of marine protected areas designated around the world. Some are small, some larger; some are no-take, some multiple-use. The global collection of MPAs — consisting of thousands of sites worldwide — has evolved to feature a broad range of designs, management regimes, and goals. But from what did this MPA constellation evolve? How has MPA practice changed since the first marine protected area? And what do those changes mean for how practitioners should plan for the future? To begin to answer these questions, one must first decide on when…
Notes and News
Clarification: The correct address for the website co-managed by the US Departments of Commerce and the Interior to provide news and information on national MPA efforts is http://mpa.gov. The August 2001 issue of MPA News incorrectly printed the address as http://www.mpa.gov. Both addresses direct the visitor to the same website, but the departments refer to the site by the shorter address. Due to the tragic events of September 11 in the US, the nomination period for the US national MPA Advisory Committee has been extended to September 30, 2001. The call for nominations is at http://mpa.gov. Designing Effective Coral Reef…
Creating MPA Inventories: How Canada and the US Are Meeting the Challenge
As MPAs are designated around the world, keeping track of their locations and what they’re protecting becomes increasingly necessary. In order for resource managers to analyze the breadth or effectiveness of a collection of MPAs, they need to know what is already in place. This is easier said than done. In regions where MPAs have been designated under a variety of regulatory regimes, tracking down all of them can be a painstaking process. Even defining what is meant by “marine protected area” — and, therefore, what will be included in the inventory — can be tricky. This month, MPA News…
Revisiting High-Seas MPAs: A New Report, and Results of a Workshop
Approximately half of the Earth’s surface consists of the high seas: open-ocean and deep-sea ecosystems beyond the 200-nautical-mile marine jurisdiction of any coastal state. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), nations hold a duty to protect the marine environment and to conserve the living resources of the high seas. But the high seas are also open to all nations, and subject to freedoms of fishing and navigation. For such activities to be limited, multilateral agreements are necessary. Such agreements are binding upon their signatory nations, but not upon others. While there are several multilateral…
More Information on Climate Change and MPAs
Last month, MPA News examined the scientific understanding of climate change in the marine environment, and what global ocean warming could entail for the planning and management of MPAs. Following publication, we spoke with three more scientists, who lent further insight to the issues involved. Pristine reefs and the impact of warming Susie Westmacott of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) has studied the impact of the great bleaching event of 1998 on Indian Ocean coral reefs. (The event corresponded with higher sea temperatures, which caused many corals to lose their colorful symbiotic algae and, in some cases, die.)…
News and Notes
The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the California Department of Fish and Game have finalized a recommendation for the designation of a no-take marine reserve network around the Channel Islands, on the US Pacific Coast. The recommendation represents the culmination of two years of consensus-based discussions among a variety of interest groups (MPA News 2:10); it will be presented to the California Fish and Game Commission on 24 August 2001. To download the recommendation document, go to http://www.cinms.nos.noaa.gov/cimpa2.html. The US Department of Commerce has reopened its search process for nominees to serve on the Federal Advisory Committee on Marine…
How Climate Change Could Affect MPAs: What Practitioners Need to Know
Earth’s climate is continually varying on a wide range of time scales, from seasons to the lifetime of the planet. Most of this variability is natural, such as the periodic rapid warming trend in the Pacific Ocean known as El Niño. Climate change can also be induced by humans, however, through activities causing the emission of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities. Among climate scientists, there is general agreement that this build-up is likely the main cause of a rise in surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures…
Plan for MPA System in Victoria (Australia) Faces Impasse on Issue of Fisher Compensation
The government of the Australian state of Victoria has put on hold its plan to establish a representative marine parks system for the state, due to arguments with the opposition over how to compensate fishers for reduced catches. The ruling Labor government favors providing roughly AU $1 million in “transitional assistance” to fishers, but wants to prevent fishers from seeking additional compensation through the Supreme Court. The opposition Liberal party objects to compensation limits on this issue. Labor has withdrawn the bill from parliamentary consideration, pending negotiations with the opposition. “Unlimited compensation through the courts would expose taxpayers to large…
Using Biological Survey Data When Selecting MPAs: A Framework
By Mat Vanderklift and Trevor Ward, University of Western Australia
Ecological information is an important basis for the selection of marine protected areas. However, when evaluating areas, planners are often faced with limited and uncertain ecological information on which to base their decisions. They usually do not have good information about the distribution patterns of species, habitats, and ecosystems over extensive areas. Even less is known about the processes that maintain biological diversity (such as those that maintain fish or invertebrate recruitment to an area) and the extent of ecological interconnectedness of different areas.
Arbitrary declaration of areas for MPAs on the basis of poor ecological knowledge leads to a high risk that objectives will not be met. If MPAs are to be more than just paper exercises to appease lobby groups with politically acceptable solutions, appropriate ecological data from a carefully designed process of sampling and analysis are required. MPAs identified and selected using only superficial ecological knowledge will provide a false sense of security, and may disguise continuing decay of marine biological diversity both within and around designated MPAs.
Paper Parks: Why They Happen, and What Can Be Done to Change Them
Many marine protected areas exist on maps and in legislation but offer little real protection in the water. Often referred to as “paper parks”, these sites represent a failure of efforts to protect resources and ecosystems. They are surprisingly common. Estimates of the percentage of some countries’ MPAs that exist primarily on paper range as high as 80-90%. Reasons abound for this ineffectiveness, and often center around shortages of funding, lack of community support, and other factors. Although these conditions can be persistent, practitioners around the world are working to overcome them. This month, MPA News examines some of the…