New Life for the Ocean How Marine Protections Keep Our Waters Wild New Life for the Ocean How Marine Protections Keep Our Waters Wild Written by James Horrox, Frontier Group Steve Blackledge and Kelsey Lamp, Environment America Research & Policy Center February 2021 Acknowledgments The authors thank Jon Day, former Director, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority; Jorge Torre, Director General, Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A.C. (Mexico); Wayne Palsson, former Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife research scientist; Michelle Paddack, Professor of Biology, Marine Sciences & Ecology, Santa Barbara City College; Jennifer Caselle, Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara; Jerald S. Ault, Ph.D., Professor & Chair, Department of Marine Ecosystems and Society, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami; Jenna Sullivan-Stack, Ph.D., Oregon State University Department of Integrative Biol- ogy; and Andy Winer, Executive Vice President, Strategies 360, for their review of drafts of this document, as well as their insights and suggestions. Thanks also to Aidan Braun for his contribution to this report, and to Tony Dutzik, Susan Rakov, Elizabeth Ridlington and Bryn Huxley-Reicher of Frontier Group for editorial support. This report is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Environment America Research & Policy Center also thanks the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation for making the report possible. The authors bear responsi- bility for any factual errors. The recommendations are those of Environment America Research & Policy Center. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of our funders or those who provided review. 2021 Environment America Research & Policy Center. Some Rights Reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 U.S. License. To view the terms of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us. Environment America Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives. For more information about Environment America Research & Policy Center or for additional copies of this report, please visit www.environmentamericacenter.org. Frontier Group provides information and ideas to build a healthier, more sustainable America. We focus on problems that arise from our nation’s material and technological wealth – the problems of abundance. We deliver timely research and analysis that is accessible to the public, applying insights gleaned from diverse fields of knowledge to arrive at new paths forward. For more information about Frontier Group, please visit www.frontiergroup.org. Layout: To The Point Collaborative, tothepointcollaborative.com Cover photo: A sea turtle off the coast of Hawaii. Credit: Piqsels, Public Domain CC0. Contents Executive summary . 4 Introduction: The ocean under threat . .7 Ocean protections have come a long way, but not far enough . 10 MPAs can offer varying levels of protection . 11 Marine protected areas safeguard wildlife and ecosystems . 13 MPAs promote increased biomass, abundance and density of marine species . 13 MPAs protect and enhance biodiversity . 14 Highly and fully protected MPAs can help mitigate the impacts of climate change . .15 Marine protected areas: Six success stories . 17 California . 17 The Channel Islands MPAs . 18 Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, HI . 21 Dry Tortugas National Park, FL . 24 Cabo Pulmo, Mexico . 26 The Great Barrier Reef, Australia . .28 Edmonds Underwater Park, WA . 32 Conclusions and recommendations . 34 Notes . 35 Executive summary he ocean drives the processes that make our • MPAs create increased biomass, abundance and planet capable of supporting life, and contains diversity of marine species. A 2009 analysis synthe- some of the world’s most complex and diverse sizing a range of studies of no-take marine reserves T 1 ecosystems. But these ecosystems are increasingly under (fully protected MPAs) showed that full protection threat. Pollution, overfishing, offshore drilling and resulted in significant increases in average biomass other human activities are destroying ocean habitat and (i.e., the total mass of living organisms in a specific threatening marine species, with profound consequences area), size and density of organisms, and the number for the biodiversity on which the health of our ocean of species present.5 In half of the reserves, total depends.2 biomass of studied species was more than triple that of unprotected areas, and the density of those A growing number of scientists and conservationists species more than 60 percent higher.6 are coalescing around the goal of protecting at least 30 percent of the world’s ocean by 2030 through networks • Highly to fully protected MPAs can help mitigate of marine protected areas (MPAs) – protected zones of the impacts of climate change. Protected marine ocean where extractive and destructive human activity is reserves have been found to increase the resilience limited. of marine species to climate-induced impacts, such as shifts in species distribution, decreased ecosystem The experience of six MPAs in the United States productivity and oxygen depletion, and to maintain and around the world shows that marine protected the health of coral reefs and other features that areas are effective tools to conserve and revive marine protect coastlines from extreme weather events.7 A ecosystems. To restore our ocean to health, govern- 2017 study concluded that marine reserves are thus ments should take a strategic, science-based approach “a viable low-tech, cost-effective adaptation strategy to planning and implementing MPAs and regional that would yield multiple cobenefits from local to MPA networks. global scales.”8 • Highly to fully protected MPAs can protect and Marine protected areas have helped restore some of the increase biodiversity, which in turn boosts overall world’s most precious and unique ocean ecosystems – ecosystem health.3 A 2006 meta-analysis showed including several in the United States. that species richness in fully protected MPAs increased by an average of 23 percent after their • California’s MPA network. In America’s first designation, and fish numbers in surrounding areas science-based, statewide MPA network, once- also significantly increased as a result of spillover depleted populations of cabezon, lingcod, black from the protected zones.4 rockfish, black abalone and other species have 4 New Life for the Ocean experienced dramatic increases.9 Within a decade of tions. Research has found the abundance of copper the implementation of a network of fully protected rockfish to be 15 times higher in Edmonds than in zones within the Channel Islands National Marine unprotected areas of the Puget Sound, and lingcod Sanctuary, the density of species targeted by fishing more than twice as abundant and significantly had risen in these zones by 50 percent, and biomass larger than in fished areas of the Sound.15 by 80 percent.10 Marine reserves have also provided important research • Dry Tortugas National Park and Ecological baselines to understand how marine ecosystems and Reserve, FL. Protection of an “ecological cross- individual organisms are being affected by local and roads” in the Gulf of Mexico has played a key role global stressors, as well as important areas of reference in the recovery of reef species including red grouper, for education and research on intact marine ecosystems. mutton snapper, yellowtail snapper and hogfish.11 Policy recommendations • Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, HI. America’s largest Marine National The health of our ocean is in crisis. Abuse and over- Monument, located in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii, exploitation of marine environments have led to has helped rescue the endangered green turtle ecosystem destruction and biodiversity decline on an and Laysan duck from the brink of extinction and unprecedented scale. And experts say the worst may be nurtured thriving populations of sharks, giant yet to come. trevally and other species that have experienced Federal and state governments must take urgent action massive population die-offs elsewhere.12 to boost our ocean’s resilience against the myriad • Cabo Pulmo, Mexico. In one of the world’s great- threats it currently faces, and to ensure the mainte- est marine protection success stories, protections nance of ocean ecosystems and conservation of marine enabled a reef to recover from near-total destruction life. Meeting these objectives will require action on by aggressive over-fishing. In the space of just 10 numerous fronts, including sustainable fisheries man- years, overall marine biomass in the protected area agement and global action on climate change. increased by 463 percent, and the biomass of top Marine protected areas, if effectively implemented and predators, including sharks and grouper, increased properly managed, are a critical tool for protecting by more than 1,000 percent.13 and enhancing the health of our ocean. Governments • Great Barrier Reef no-take marine reserves, should take the following actions to expand marine Australia. In the world’s most famous reef, protected areas and maximize their benefits for ocean