Research in New Zealand, Florida, and elsewhere shows that ecologically designed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) benefit both marine ecosystems and fisheries. Now Californians have a chance to find out on home ground whether that is true. On April 9, the California Fish and Game Commission established a network of 12 MPAs in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. This is the largest such network on the West Coast and one of the largest in the world. It encompasses 142 nautical square miles and protects 19 percent of state waters within the Sanctuary. Reserve boundaries have been drawn scientifically, to protect the Sanctuary’s entire ecosystem.

Ten of the protected areas are Marine Life Reserves—or no-take reserves—where all fishing or other harvesting is prohibited and fishing boats may enter only if their gear is stowed. Two are Marine Conservation Areas where limited fishing may be permitted. The intent is to help restore fish stocks and other marine life devastated by destructive practices. Endangered white abalone, rockfish, and kelp forests will have a better chance of recovery.

“This is a first step, and it’s a test case,” said Gary E. Davis, visiting chief scientist for the National Park Service’s Ocean Programs. “In the past, we were relying on our inefficiency to protect us from ourselves. Though we didn’t realize it, we were relying for recruitment on places we couldn’t get to, that were difficult to locate with a compass—hidden places such as little piles of rock off a reef. Today all those places have been lost. They can be located with certainty with a GPS system and have become available to everyone.” Modern fishing technology allows access to far greater depths and includes gear that enables trawl nets to crush bottom habitat structures on which they previously would have snagged. “So we have to make the refugia explicit,” Davis explained.

The new reserves will help long-living fish to mature to sizes at which they are most fecund, thus increasing fish populations. “Evidence from around the world is that you get pretty rapid increase in biomass,” said Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Schuchat. “Different species come back at different rates.”

Before the creation of the Channel Islands MPAs, only 0.2 percent of state waters were in a scattering of small no- take reserves, which “were placed where nobody complained, not necessarily where the best habitat is,” according to John Ugoretz, senior marine biologist for the Marine Region of the California Department of Fish and Game. The new network brings the total area of state waters thus protected to 3.5 percent. The earlier reserves did yield some benefits, but the new ecologically based network has far greater potential.

“It was created because recreational fishermen from Ventura County petitioned for it,” said Schuchat. The fiercest opposition also came from recreational fishermen, whose emblematic red shirts were dramatically visible at the numerous hearings and meetings on the MPA proposal during the past four years. Now the Department of Fish and Game is enlisting commercial and recreational fishermen as volunteers for monitoring.

Enforcement has been “very successful,” so far, Ugoretz said. “Only two violations have warranted citations.” Citizens who see a violation may call a 24-hour hotline: (888) DFG-CALTIP.

“I’m pretty confident that 10–20 years from now, fishing around the edges of the reserve will be terrific,” Schuchat said. “People will say: Isn’t it great that they had the foresight to set this up?” Monitoring and studies already under way will test this prediction.

Publications

Two recent publications complement the Pew Ocean Commission’s report. Both are available on-line as downloadable PDF files.

What Price Farmed Fish: A Review of the Environmental and Social Costs of Farming Carnivorous Fish, by Michael Weber, published by SeaWeb, examines the impacts of farming salmon and other carnivorous fish.

www.Aquaculture Clearinghouse.org

Protecting Wild Salmon from Impacts of Atlantic Salmon Aquaculture, published by the World Wildlife Fund and the Atlantic Salmon Federation, focuses on Atlantic nations with salmon farming operations, but is relevant to the Pacific Coast, where Atlantic salmon are also farmed, with potentially more negative impacts on wild Pacific species.

www.world wildlife.org/news/pdfs/osloresprogress.pdf