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Marine Protected Areas of the United States

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Marine Protected Areas of the United States Marine Protected Areas of the United States Conserving Our OCEANSOne Place at a Time marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov TABLE OF CONTENTS Marine Protected Areas: 1 U.S. MPAs at a Glance 3 Protecting Blue Carbon Habitats CONSERVING at Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve OUR OCEANS 4 Connecting the Dots: MPA Networks and Systems One Place at a time 4 California’s Ecological Networks of MPAs 8 Focus on Natural and arine protected areas not only protect the marine life Cultural Heritage and cultural resources within their boundaries, but 11 Thunder Bay National Marine are a valuable tool for protecting marine ecosystems Sanctuary: Building Community and the coastal communities they sustain. By engag- Support M ing local communities in places they care about, MPAs demonstate 12 MPA Management Trends how we can truly conserve our oceans… one place at a time. 13 Thinking Big – Large Remote MPAs are Havens for Marine Life What is a Marine Protected Area? tion – area, marine, reserved, lasting, 14 Managing for Resilience: Kahekili and protection – are defined in the Marine protected areas (MPAs) are Herbivore Fishery Management Area Framework for the National System of Ma- special places like coastal or underwa- 15 rine Protected Areas of the United States of Planning for Visitors – and Sea ter parks that protect habitats, fish and Level Rise – at Gateway National America. The United States categorizes Recreation Area wildlife, and cultural resources. While some people assume that marine pro- MPAs by three primary conservation 16 Looking Forward tected areas are closed to fishing and purposes: other uses, MPA is actually a broad • Natural Heritage – biological com- Editor: ....................................Lauren Wenzel term that includes places with a wide munities, habitats, ecosystems and Design: ....................................Matt McIntosh range of purposes, legal authorities and processes levels of protection. What they have in • Cultural Heritage – cultural re- Contributors: .................... Jordan Gass and common is a focus on the long-term sources that reflect the nation’s Charles Wahle, MPA Center; Michael Migliori, conservation of coastal and ocean eco- maritime history and traditional NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource systems and the resources and services cultural connections to the sea Management; Joanne Flanders, NOAA Of- they support. fice of Exploration and Research; Bret Wolfe, The formal definition of an MPA • Sustainable Production – harvested US Fish and Wildlife Service; Cliff McCreedy, living resources and their habitats National Park Service; Russell Sparks, Hawaii in the United States is “any area of Department of Land and Aquatic Resources. the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, territorial, Why We Need MPAs Cover Image: .......... ©iStockphoto.com/Jessamyn Smallenburg tribal, or local laws or regulations to The world’s oceans and coasts are provide lasting protection for part or increasingly threatened by develop- PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER all of the natural and cultural resources ment, pollution, overfishing, climate therein.” Key terms within the defini- change and natural events, which strain MPAs have been used as a conservation tool for more than a century – starting with a focus on key 1868 resources like fur seals or water birds, and expanding to focus increasingly on protecting entire ecosystems. to learn about the many ways in which TimelineTakecommunities, states a tripand federal through agencies have established time MPAs to protect our nation’s ocean treasures. 1 Marine Protected Areas Protected Marine marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov Photo: Flickr/Bob JagendorfPhoto: THE BIG PICTURE U.S. MPAs at a Glance The coastal and ocean waters around the United States are home to a wide array of MPAs of all sizes, shapes, and purposes. A quick overview of all types of MPAs in U.S. waters, including those established for natural heritage, cul- tural heritage and sustainable production, reveals that: • The United States currently has more than • Nearly all (85 percent) U.S. MPAs are multiple use, 1,700 MPAs allowing some form of extractive activities • About 41 percent of all U.S. waters out to • No take MPAs occupy only about 3 percent of all 200nm are in some form of MPA (includes U.S. waters sustainable production [fishery] MPAs which often have specific gear restrictions over large • About 7 percent of the area in MPAs in the U.S. is ocean areas) no take • About 8 percent of all U.S. waters are pro- • State and territorial governments manage approxi- tected by MPAs focused on natural heritage mately 76 percent of the nation’s MPAs or cultural heritage (excluding sustainable Federal agencies manage 60% of U.S. MPA area production MPAs) • President Theodore Roosevelt establishes the first MPA and the first National Wildlife 1868 President Grant deploys 1903 Refuge in the United States 1913 1967 military and customs agents to -- Pelican Island National the Pribilof Islands, part of the Wildlife Refuge –to protect Hanauma Bay Marine Life recently purchased territory of pelicans and other migratory Conservation District is Alaska, to protect valuable fur birds that were being killed designated as the first no-take seals from overexploitation by for their feathers for hats and MPA in Hawaii, and today is foreign hunters. other fashions. one of the most visited MPAs in the world. First MPA in National Park System is created at Cabrillo National Monument, California. 2 Alaska Service Layer Credits: Source: US National Park Service Pacific Islands Copyright:© 2013 Esri Marine Protected Areas Protected Marine Hawaii Guam US Marine Protected Areas Level of Government Federal Partnership Caribbean American marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov Samoa State & Territorial Map of U.S. Natural Heritage and Cultural Heritage MPAs the health of our marine Resources Present in U.S. Natural Heritage and ecosystems. MPAs are a Cultural Heritage Marine Protected Areas tool to help reduce those stresses and restore ma- RESOURCE PERCENT OF MPAs WITH RESOURCE PRESENT Coastal wetlands 47 rine ecosystems. They Mangroves 16 can also serve as an “in- Barrier Islands 15 surance policy” by con- Rocky Intertidal Areas 11 serving biological diver- Corals (tropical) 14 sity, protecting spawning Corals (deepwater) 3 and nursery areas, and Seagrasses & Kelp 40 protecting habitats like Marine Mammal Haulouts 10 barrier islands, coral Bird Nesting Areas 60 reefs and wetlands that Migratory Birds 48 shield communities Fish Spawning Areas 22 from coastal storms and Fish Nursery Areas 19 flooding. These ben- Anadromous Fish 14 efits, along with other Turtle Nesting Areas 14 economic benefits from Fissipeds (sea otters & polar bears) 5 recreation, tourism and Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) 31 fishing, help sustain lo- Pinnipeds 16 cal coastal communities. 1972 1974 Coastal Zone Management Act is passed, establish- The wreck of the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary ing the National Estuarine is nominated for National Act is passed, outlining the Research Reserve System, Marine Sanctuary status, purpose and process to a network of MPAs for becoming the first National create Sanctuaries. research, education and Marine Sanctuary in 1975. stewardship. Making Sense of U.S. MPAs: the 3 MPA Inventory With more than 1,700 marine pro- tected areas managed by dozens of federal, state and territorial govern- ment agencies, the MPA picture in the United States is a complicated mosaic of jurisdictions and approaches. The U.S. MPA Inventory, managed by the National Marine Protected Areas Cen- ter, is a comprehensive database of all Areas Protected Marine MPAs in U.S. waters and is updated an- nually. This unique database includes geospatial information on the sites, Photo: Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve National Estuarine Research Bay Waquoit Photo: as well as a host of other data on the purpose, governance, regulations and PROTECTING “BLUE CARBON” HABITATS AT WAQUOIT resources of MPAs in U.S. waters. An BAY NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE accompanying MPA Mapping Tool al- lows users to view boundaries and ac- Tidal wetlands are increasingly recognized as one of the key cess data for most of these sites. (See coastal habitats that absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide from marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov www.marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov.) the atmosphere and store it as “blue carbon,” thus decreasing the ef- This overview summarizes infor- fects of global warming. Globally, coastal habitats like salt marshes, mation about all U.S. MPAs, with seagrasses and mangroves are more effective than forests in se- particular emphasis on MPAs estab- questering carbon. To better understand how these processes work, lished to protect the nation’s natural Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) is con- or cultural heritage such as biological ducting research into the relationships between climate change, sea diversity, functioning ecosystems and level rise, salt marshes and nitrogen pollution in order to develop and intact habitats. As such, this analy- apply new techniques to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and sis excludes sustainable production carbon sequestration in wetlands. MPAs created specifically to manage Waquoit Bay NERR is part of the National Estuarine Research Re- fisheries. Additionally, figures for the serve System, a network of 28 MPAs focused on estuarine areas natural heritage and cultural heritage protected for research, education and stewardship. Waquiot
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