The Skimmer on Marine Ecosystems and Management
Notes & News: New Zealand – Cultural ecosystem services – Ocean acidification management options – Impact of rising ocean temperatures – Ocean planning handbook – Ocean zoning
MSP process launched for NZ's Hauraki Gulf In September 2013, New Zealand launched a project (Sea Change) to develop a marine spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf, a 12,000-km2 body of water adjacent to the city of Auckland. To be delivered in 2015, the plan will address problems such as…
Letter to the Editor: Marine conservation and sustainable food production are on a collision course
Dear MEAM: The last issue of MEAM included an interesting case of trade-offs between food production (in the form of food safety) and in-stream/watershed engineering for biodiversity conservation barriers in the Salinas Valley, California ("Integrated land-and-sea management: Examining three cases where marine practitioners are looking upstream", MEAM 6:6). From the…
Why fisheries management without spatial considerations is ineffective: Interview with John Caddy
It makes intuitive sense that if a given area of ocean offers several types of seafloor habitat, and if commercially targeted fish populations prefer one habitat over the others (particularly at different life stages), then stock assessments should account for the spatial distribution of the habitats. However, says fisheries scientist…
Integrated land-and-sea management, Part 2: Reconciling different management priorities within Gwaii Haanas, Canada
Human activities in upland ecosystems – farming, forestry, development, and so on – typically have impacts downstream as well, in coastal or even offshore areas. Recognizing the connections between land and sea systems is a central part of coastal and marine ecosystem-based management. The feature article on integrated land-and-sea management…
Tundi’s Take: Engagement of citizens in research may be a pain for scientists, but citizen science holds many benefits
By Tundi Agardy, MEAM Contributing Editor. tundiagardy@earthlink.net There are certain undeniable facts about effective marine management: We know enough to recognize we should adopt an EBM approach and manage more comprehensively; Despite this knowledge, we often need more science (natural and social) to detail how to improve management; Additionally, we…
The EBM Toolbox: Coastal and marine citizen science projects
[Editor's note: The goal of The EBM Toolbox is to promote awareness of tools for facilitating EBM. It is brought to you by the EBM Tools Network, an alliance of tool users, developers, and training providers.] Participants in the EBM Tools Network listserv were recently asked to provide examples of…
Project aims to guide EU monitoring and implementation of spatially managed areas
The EU-funded project "Monitoring and Evaluation of Spatially Managed Areas" (MESMA) is analyzing marine spatial planning in practice in Europe. The ultimate goal of the four-year project, which started in 2009, is to inform wider implementation of MSP in the region, namely by drawing lessons and good practices from 13…
Notes & News: Timor-Leste – Biodiversity offsets – Rhode Island MSP – Payments for ecosystem services
Timor-Leste approves guidelines for co-management of natural resources The nation of Timor-Leste – in the heart of SE Asia's Coral Triangle – has adopted its first comprehensive guidelines for establishing community and government co-management of natural resources, on land and at sea. The guidelines were prepared by Conservation International for…
Integrated land-and-sea management: Examining three cases where marine practitioners are looking upstream
Coastal systems are linked to upland areas, just as they are to offshore areas. We can think of the connections among systems as two sides of the same coin. On one side, the connections are positive: with land, freshwater, and offshore marine systems delivering critical nutrients, biota, sediments for land…
Tundi’s Take: Acknowledge the land-sea connection, even if it takes you from your comfort zone as a marine manager
By Tundi Agardy, MEAM Contributing Editor. tundiagardy@earthlink.net
By its very nature, EBM requires that we address how ecosystems are connected and factor that into management. But what does it mean for our community of marine and coastal managers when inland ecosystems are among those connections?
Although the community generally acknowledges that being "ecosystem-based" requires considering both land and aquatic systems when developing our management regimes, doing that is not easy. And it does not come naturally to most marine management agencies.