Marine Priority Conservation Areas Baja California to the Bering Sea This publication was prepared by the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in coordina- tion with officials and consultants of the CEC Secretariat. The views contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments of Canada, Mexico or the United States of America. Reproduction of this publication in whole or in part and in any form for educational or nonprofit purposes may be made without special permission from the CEC Secretariat, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. The CEC would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication or material that uses this document as a source. For more information: Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America 393, rue Saint-Jacques Ouest, bureau 200 Montréal (Québec) Canada H2Y 1N9 Tel: (514) 350-4300 Fax: (514) 350-4314 www.cec.org [email protected] © Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 2005 ISBN: 2-923358-09-0 Legal Deposit-Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, 2005 Legal Deposit-Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2005 Printed in Canada on recycled paper. Disponible en español Cite as: Morgan, Lance, Sara Maxwell, Fan Tsao, Tara A.C. Wilkinson, and Peter Etnoyer. Marine Priority Conservation Areas: Baja California to the Bering Sea. Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute. Montreal, February 2005. Cover photo: Circling jacks (Caranx sexfasciatus), Las Animas, Sea of Cortez Phillip Colla, OceanLight.com Marine Priority Conservation Areas Baja California to the Bering Sea Lance Morgan Sara Maxwell Fan Tsao Tara A.C. Wilkinson Peter Etnoyer Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America Marine Conservation Biology Institute February 2005 Table of Contents Executive Summary iv Description of Priority Conservation Areas by Marine Ecoregion 15 Foreword v Bering Sea Ecoregion 16 Acknowledgments vi PCA 1. Pribilof Islands 20 Acronym List viii PCA 2. Bristol Bay 22 Introduction 1 Aleutian Archipelago Ecoregion 24 PCA 3. Western Aleutian Islands/Bowers Bank 28 Overview 2 PCA 4. Unimak Pass/Aleutian Islands 30 Goal of the Priority Conservation Areas Project 3 History of the Process 3 Alaskan/Fjordland Pacific Ecoregion 32 Methodology 4 PCA 5. Western Kodiak Island/Shelikof Strait 38 What is a PCA? 5 PCA 6. Lower Cook Inlet/Eastern Kodiak Island 40 Data Collection 5 PCA 7. Prince William Sound/Copper River Delta 42 Marine Species of Common Conservation Concern 6 PCA 8. Patton Seamounts 44 Data Analysis 6 PCA 9. Glacier Bay/Sitka Sound/Frederick Sound 46 Benthic Complexity 6 PCA 10. Dixon Entrance/Langara Island/Forrester Island 48 Sea Surface Temperature Frontal Density 7 PCA 11. Northern Queen Charlotte Sound/ Sea Surface Height: Currents, Gyres and Eddies 7 Hecate Strait/Gwaii Haanas 50 Primary Productivity 9 PCA 12. Scott Islands/Queen Charlotte Strait 52 Priority Conservation Areas Workshop/Consensus Mapper 10 Columbian Pacific Ecoregion 54 Mapping Exercises 12 PCA 13. Southern Strait of Georgia/San Juan Islands 60 Exercise One: Thematically Identify Ecologically PCA 14. Barkley Sound/Pacific Coastal Washington 62 Significant Regions 12 PCA 15. Central Oregon/Cape Mendocino 64 Exercise Two: Review and Refine Ecologically Significant Regions 12 Exercise Three: Identify Threats and Opportunities 12 Exercise Four: Identify Priority Conservation Areas 13 Montereyan Pacific Transition Ecoregion 66 Conclusion 109 PCA 16. Central California 70 Discussion and Future 110 PCA 17. Upper Bight of the Californias/Channel Islands/ San Nicolas Island 72 Literature Cited 114 Southern Californian Pacific Ecoregion 74 Appendices 120 PCA 18. Lower Bight of the Californias/Islas Coronados 80 Appendix 1. Scale of Appropriate Physiographic and Oceanographic Features 120 PCA 19. Bahía San Quintín/Bahía El Rosario 82 Appendix 2. Marine Species of Common PCA 20. Isla Guadalupe 84 Conservation Concern List 121 PCA 21. Vizcaíno/Isla Cedros 86 Appendix 3. B2B CD-ROM Data Sets 121 PCA 22. Laguna San Ignacio 88 PCA 23. Bahía Magdalena 90 Gulf of California Ecoregion 92 PCA 24. Corredor Los Cabos/Loreto 98 PCA 25. Alto Golfo de California 100 PCA 26. Grandes Islas del Golfo de California/ Bahía de Los Ángeles 102 PCA 27. Humedales de Sonora, Sinaloa y Nayarit/ Bahía de Banderas 104 PCA 28. Islas Marías 106 iii Executive Summary From the Gulf of California, with its deep canyons, The CEC, by convening and coordinating the North nutrient-rich upwellings and high levels of endemism, to American MPA Network (NAMPAN), is developing the the 20,000 kilometers of bays, inlets and inland capacity for a network of MPAs to span the jurisdictions drainage systems of the Pacific Northwest and the high of Canada, Mexico and the United States. The aim of productivity of the Bering Sea, the west coast of North NAMPAN is to enhance and strengthen the conser- America is home to unique and important shared vation of biodiversity in critical marine habitats marine environments. It is also home to a great number throughout North America by creating a functional of shared marine species—such as Pacific gray and blue system of ecologically based MPA networks that cross whales, leatherback sea turtles, bluefin tuna, black brant political borders and depend on broad cooperation. The geese and Heermann’s gulls—that migrate thousands of identification of these PCAs is not intended as the MPA kilometers, moving across national borders without network design, but rather as a portfolio of continen- hesitation. Hence, be it through shared species or tally significant sites which can serve as nodes around ecosystems, the marine environments of Canada, which a network of reserves can be built. Networks of Mexico and the United States are intimately linked. reserves are important tools for conserving biological Accordingly, action or inaction on one side of a border diversity, and these PCAs should be viewed as places to will have consequences for the shared living organisms begin building more comprehensive, effective MPA occupying ecosystems with no definite boundaries. networks for North America. Identifying priority conservation areas (PCAs) is one of The methodology for identifying PCAs relied on teaming several marine initiatives sponsored by the Commission experts’ knowledge with the development of a for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America geographic information system (GIS). The GIS included as part of its Strategic Plan for North American appropriate spatial data sets and selected analyses Cooperation in the Conservation of Biodiversity. This available for the entire B2B region at a common report describes the process of identifying these resolution, as well as smaller subsets of regional PCAs—areas of trinational importance due to their information. Analyses focused on translating several of ecological significance, threatened nature and these data sets to highlight regions where physical opportunities for conservation—which are in need of bi- processes lead to unique features, high levels of and trinational cooperative action for their successful biodiversity or high abundances of species. At the final conservation. Iteratively over the course of this project, PCA identification workshop, experts reviewed the the definition of PCAs was refined to reflect the goals of aggregated data sets and analyses to inform their the CEC process, the variable nature of data available in judgments of ecological value and conservation priority. the three nations, and the spatial scale of the Baja Decisions on priority were based on the ecological California to Bering Sea (B2B) region. Other initiatives significance of the areas to North America, threats to advance a common framework for mapping marine the areas and opportunities to advance conservation. ecoregions, identify and help protect species of common conservation concern, and work to provide a A total of 28 sites were identified as priority conser- common understanding as well as a coordinated and vation areas (PCAs), totaling eight percent of the total complementary use of institutions, initiatives and tools area within the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the in each country so as to implement an integrated three nations. By country, these areas represent Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network in North approximately 10 percent of the area in Canada’s America. This PCA initiative seeks to detail where Pacific EEZ, seven percent of the B2B region in Mexico, conservation action is immediately necessary. This and eight percent of the US EEZ (within the B2B identification charts a course for future conservation defined region). Experts’ criteria, outstanding ecological alliances and action in the B2B region. characteristics, threats and existing designations for Foreword each area are detailed in this report in the section Canada, Mexico and the United States are inextricably “Description of the Priority Conservation Areas by linked by growing economic, social and cultural Marine Ecoregion,” which places the PCAs within the exchanges; nevertheless, our relationship does not begin geographic context of CEC ecological classifications. or end with these exchanges. For millions of years, nature has united North America, influenced the These 28 priority conservation areas are those that development of our societies, and shaped our cultural marine experts consider essential to safeguarding the identities, creating a complex living mosaic. biological diversity of the B2B region of North America. These sites encompass unique