The Marine Protected Area Inventory

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Gordon McCoy
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1 The Marine Protected Area Inventory New pictures Jordan Gass, Hugo Selbie and Charlie Wahle ESRI Ocean Forum November 6, 2013

2 Outline What is the MPA Inventory? Purpose Data How it s used Future directions Linking sites and programs MPA accessibility Ecological representativeness Future of the MPA Viewer

3 Why Inventory MPAs? Many types of protected areas Marine jurisdictions overlap MPA data sources are disparate Management authorities often based on resources Federal National Marine Sanctuaries National Estuarine Research Reserves National Parks Maritime Memorials National Seashores National Monuments National Wildlife Refuges Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserves State, Commonwealth, Territorial Marine Life Conservation Districts Aquatic Preserves Areas of Special Biological Significance Ecological Reserves Critical Habitats Marine Conservation Areas Research Reserves Coastal and Marine Parks Underwater Preserves

4 Why Inventory MPAs? Create comprehensive picture of MPAs nationwide Inform ocean managers and policy-makers to understand where MPAs are located and what they protect Engage local, territorial, tribal, state, and federal programs to share information and work together Inform coastal and marine spatial planning

5 Spatial Catalog of > 1,700 Sites GIS Boundaries Classification attributes Conservation Focus Level of Protection Fishing Restrictions Management Plan Type Legal Authority Ecological Resources Cultural Resources MPA Inventory

6 Ecological and Cultural Resources Fit an ecosystem into standardized boxes Use best available public data online Decision rules developed to insure repeatable protocol Presence/absence Generalized high level groupings Species groups Physical habitat Biological use areas Cultural features

7 MPA Inventory Structure ESRI Geodatabase Spatial boundaries Site and zone data MS Access databases Classification attributes Resource presence ArcGIS Toolbox Analysis and data management tools Python scripts Models to batch scripts

8 MPA Inventory Distribution Published as an annual update (May 2013) Downloadable from Geodatabase, shapefile, metadata Tabular data for non-gis users WMS feeds for external users/geoportals Published through ArcGIS Server Multipurpose Marine Cadastre ERMA Online data viewer

9 Inventory Analyses National and regional statistics ArcToolbox scripts Customized subsets of inventory E.g. MPAs in California Cartographic products Responses to partners, public and media

10 Sample analyses and outreach Number of U.S. MPAs by Ecoregion Most U.S. MPAs (346, or 22%) located within the Virginian Atlantic marine ecoregion. Second most (274, or 18%)located in the Northern Gulf of Mexico marine ecoregion. Acadian Atlantic Alaskan/Fjordland Pacific Aleutian Archipelago Beaufort/Chukchi Seas Bering Sea Caribbean Sea Carolinian Atlantic Columbian Pacific Great Lakes* Gulf Stream Hawaiian Archipelago Montereyan Pacific Transition Northern Gulf of Mexico Northern Gulf Stream Transition Pacific Remote** South Florida/Bahamian Atlantic Southern Californian Pacific Southern Gulf of Mexico Virginian Atlantic U.S. MPAs by Level of Protection Only 14% of all U.S. MPAs are no take areas that prohibit the extraction or significant destruction of natural or cultural resources. Uniform Multiple Use 80% Other + < 1% Zoned Multiple Use 6% Zoned w/no Take Areas 2% No Access 4% No Impact 1% No Take 7% California Analyses 213 MPAs in California (CA) waters About 32% of CA waters out to the U.S. EEZ, are in some form of MPA 25% of these MPAs prohibit all take, representing just 0.15% of CA waters out to the U.S. EEZ 28% of sites have nesting areas for migrating birds Just over half (51%) have an ongoing biological monitoring program Only 20% list anadromous fish species

11 SPARC Tool Partnership with NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science SPatial Assessment Resource Characterization Tool (SPARC) ArcGIS 10 Add-In Select MPA Area of Interest Select Comparison MPAs Compare With All MPAs Incorporate variety of data into analysis MPA Classification Attributes Spatial or Tabular Resources Data Tabular Protection Data

12 SPARC Sample Results Kelp is present in 124 km 2 of California waters Of the 213 California MPAs, 109 (51%) have kelp resources Kelp covers 0.03% of MPA area 66 km 2 (53%) of kelp area is within MPAs 28 km 2 (23%) of kelp is within no-take MPAs

13 Partnerships with MPA Programs and NGOs Combine ecological analyses with management spin Illustrate utility and flexibility of the Inventory Sample projects: National Wildlife Refuge Marine Protected Areas (NWR) MPAs and Wildlife Hotspots in the California Current (PRBO)

14 International Coordination USGS GAP Program PAD-US Assign GAP status codes to MPAs IUCN Incorporate into WDPA (protectedplanet.net) Assign IUCN categories to US MPAs

15 Future Directions: Revising The MPA Viewer The dilemma: The MPA viewer is popular, but can t be updated Based on Adobe Flash The goal: Keep the dynamic feel Allow for additional data exposure Show Inventory data and derived stories Possible solutions: Storymaps ArcGIS online

16 Future Directions: Linking MPAs thematically and geographically Identify sites with common problems, e.g. climate change, sea level rise Pick appropriate indicators likely affected by sea level rise Map how many of these indicators a sites/ MPA programs have Create linkages across programs, to share problems and solutions Outreach

17 Future Directions: Identifying MPA Access MPA Inventory links MPAs to coastal communities via targeted stories and products Disseminate products using ArcGIS online services MPAs near population centers What is your nearest MPA? What can you do in local MPAs? Demonstrate the importance of MPAs

18 Future Directions: How ecologically representative are US MPAs? Executive Order (EO) called for the establishment of a scientifically based, comprehensive national system of marine protected areas (MPAs) representing diverse U.S. marine ecosystems. Example 3. Presence/absence of various habitat groups in national system member MPA's in the South Florida/Bahamian Atlantic Ecoregion National System MPA Biscayne National Park Dry Tortugas National Park Everglades National Park Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge Key West National Wildlife Refuge National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Barrier Beach Islands Coral Reef Mangrove Sand Seamounts (Tropical) Forests Dunes /Pinnacles Sea Grass Submarine canyons Wetlands/ MudFlats Kelp & Rivers/ Streams Algae TOTAL = 10 1 (10%) 7 (70%) 6 (60%) 9 (90%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 10 (100%) 0 (0%) 7 (70%) 4 (40%) 3 (30%) Identify where major resource groups exist in U.S. MPAs Use SPARC tool with spatial resources data to describe representativeness patterns Compare resource protection afforded by MPAs

19 Future Directions: How protected are MPAs? What else do we need to know about MPAS? What do MPAs protect? Are MPAs addressing threats? What level of data is necessary? Possible data collection methodologies MPA Center review of site regulations Survey of MPA program and site managers

20 Questions? Jordan Gass Charles Wahle Hugo Selbie

Marine Protected Areas: An Overview Kate Smukler New England Regional Coordinator

Marine Protected Areas: An Overview Kate Smukler New England Regional Coordinator www.mpa.gov MPAs: Many types, many purposes Conservation and sustainable use Important natural and cultural resources