Marine Protected Areas

Pacific Marine Conservation Council (PMCC) advocates for ecosystem-based management that fosters sustainable fishing communities. The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy was clear in stating, “ U.S. ocean and coastal resources should be managed to reflect the relationships among all ecosystem components, including humans and non-human species and the environments in which they live.” We agree.

As PMCC considers important and controversial issues, we think in terms of benefiting the marine environment and the people and livelihoods connected to the sea. In this spirit, we offer the following position statement on Marine Protected Areas.

PMCC recognizes that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will be important fisheries management tools for conservation of coastal marine ecosystems and for the management of coastal West Coast fisheries, especially for protecting habitat and maintaining old-growth age structure (Recent data shows that larger older female rockfish are the most effective spawners.) When considering the development of MPAs, PMCC believes that the following points should be considered and incorporated into the plan:

1. Clear goals must be established for each proposed area. These include answers to questions such as: Why is the MPA being proposed? What are the expected benefits? What will be the timeline and criteria used for evaluating MPA effectiveness?
   
2. Any positive or negative impacts (social, economic, etc.) on coastal communities, recreational and commercial fisheries must be evaluated to the extent that available information allows. Exploring potential mitigation for detrimental impacts to fishermen would be part of this analysis.
   
3. The fishing community and other stakeholders should be involved in all stages of development of MPAs (i.e. goals, design, implementation, evaluation) in a meaningful manner.
   
4. An achievable enforcement plan must be developed and implemented parallel with MPA implementation.
   
5. Initial biological baseline information must be collected and monitoring continued for each MPA.

MPAs are not a panacea, and therefore should be considered as a supplement to, and not a sole means of, either conservation or fisheries management. Other management tools must be evaluated for their usefulness in addition to MPAs.