West Coast Pilot: A Regional Partnership to Advance Ecosystem Approaches to Marine Protected Areas

Background
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that the conservation and sustainable use of the nation’s marine environment requires ecosystem-based approaches to management and regional coordination among resource managers. In addition, the west coast—California, Oregon, and Washington—is at the forefront of federal, state, and tribal marine protected area (MPA) activity and has an increasing interest in place-based marine ecosystem management. For these reasons, the National MPA Center is leading a collaborative initiative there to pilot some of the key methods and approaches for designing and managing an effective regional system of MPAs on the west coast. Working closely with MPA programs, tribes, and stakeholder groups in the region, this effort involves developing, testing, and applying analytical tools and using the best information, including science-based data and traditional ecological knowledge. The products of this multi-year endeavor, and the lessons it offers, will provide a foundation for regional MPA planning, as well as numerous other ecosystem-based management efforts that require the same comprehensive information.

Methodologies developed and tested here will be applied, as appropriate, in other regions in the country in the future.

Government Agency Partners Meeting—June 2006
In June 2006, the MPA Center hosted a two-day meeting for west coast regional MPA government partners. The workshop was called, “Building Common Ground toward an Effective West Coast Regional System of MPAs,” and it was held in Monterey, California. You can review the agenda, documents, and presentations from that meeting:

Agenda from June 20-21, 2006 Government Agency Partners Workshop:
“Building Common Ground toward an Effective West Coast Regional System of MPAs”

Presentations and Documents from Government Agency Partners Workshop:

West Coast MPA Government Partners Meeting
West Coast Pilot Structure

Context Setting
• Trends in Regional Marine Conservation, Mr. Joseph Uravitch, A.I.C.P., Director, National Marine Protected Areas Center
• Place-Based Ocean Management on the West Coast: The Current State of MMAs, Dr. Charles Wahle
  
  
Tour de West Coast Panel Sessions
• Federal and Regional Panel
  • National Park Service Marine Protected Areas, Gary Davis, National Park Service
  • Pacific Coast Groundfish EFH, Steve Copps, NOAA Fisheries
  • National Estuarine Research Reserve System: Program Overview and Priorities, Nina Garfield, NOAA Estuarine Reserve Division
  • North Pacific Coast National Wildlife Refuges, Steve Moore, US Fish and Wildlife
  • North American Marine Protected Area Network (NAMPAN), Joseph Uravitch, National Marine Protected Area Center
    
    
• Tribal Panel
  • The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission: Serving the Treaty Indian Tribes in Western Washington, Fran Wilshusen, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission
    
    
• State Panel
  • State of Washington, Dave Palazzi, Washington Department of Natural Resources
  • Oregon’s Marine Protected Areas Initiatives, Jessica Hamiton, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski’s Office
  • California’s Marine Protected Areas, John Ugoretz, California Department of Fish and Game
    
    
West Coast Pilot Overview
• West Coast Pilot Overview, Sarah Fischer, National MPA Center

West Coast Pilot Goals and Focus
The west coast pilot’s goals are to facilitate the effective use of MPAs as an ecosystem management tool to conserve and protect vital marine areas and resources on the west coast, and to inform the development of a regionally-based national system of MPAs.
Some of the outputs and products expected from the pilot include:

• A suite of tools, methods, and information for regional MPA planning and adaptive management that will provide the ability to identify:
  • human use patterns in a regional, ecosystem context
  • ecologically important areas
  • important submerged cultural resources
  • governance structure for west coast marine protected areas
    
    
• An ongoing regional forum for west coast state, federal, and tribal programs to efficiently coordinate their management of existing MPAs and collaboratively plan future conservation efforts.
  
  
• The ability to integrate data layers and identify regionally-based priority ecological and submerged cultural resource areas in need of new or enhanced protection and management.
  
  

West Coast Pilot Components
Work on the pilot project will involve two inter-dependent components: a scientific assessment and analysis track, and an agency and stakeholder planning track.

• Science and Assessment. The following key scientific assessment and analysis efforts will provide the natural and social science foundation for identifying significant gaps in current protection of important marine cultural and ecosystem resources, services and values:
  
  
  • Resource Characterizations. Synthesis of existing data on: (a) the distribution and connectivity of marine habitats, resources and ecosystem processes ; and (b) the location, status and historical significance of submerged cultural resources along the Pacific coast.
    
    
  • Patterns and Impacts of Human Use. Synthesis of existing and new data from stakeholders on how, when and where people use marine ecosystems, and assessment of the potential impacts of those uses on ecosystems, cultural resources and other users.
    
    
  • Contributions of Existing MPAs. Synthesis of key information about the location, purpose, level of protection, and potential ecosystem impacts for all place-based areas on the west coast, including a compilation of de facto marine areas that restrict access for reasons other than conservation (e.g. security zones).
    
    
    
• Agency and Stakeholder Planning: The agency and stakeholder planning component of the west coast pilot will use the scientific analyses developed to collaboratively identify priority national system conservation and management priorities for the west coast:
  
  
  • Federal, State, and Tribal Participation. West coast federal, state, regional, and tribal agencies will be invited to collaboratively scope out and implement the pilot project. In 2006, a workshop of these MPA programs and other interested agencies will be convened to initiate this effort.
    
    
  • Governance Framework Overview. Understanding which agencies have authority over different activities in a given geographic area is key for successful place-based planning and management. The MPA Center will develop a comprehensive overview of MPA policy at the international, federal, state, and tribal levels.
    
    
  • Stakeholder Input. The MPA Center and partners will actively engage and seek advice from stakeholders throughout the west coast pilot. The MPA Center will communicate progress via regular updates in MPA.gov, newsletters, and other outlets.
    

West Coast Pilot Partners
The west coast pilot is an ambitious undertaking and to succeed requires the collaboration of MPA programs and management authorities, with meaningful input from other stakeholders in the region. Led by the MPA Center, this effort involves a growing list of NOAA partners, including the National Marine Sanctuary Program, National Center for Coastal Ocean Science, National Estuarine Research Reserve System (a federal/state partnership), and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Other partners include federal programs, such as the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; state and local agencies; the Pacific Fishery Management Council; federally-recognized tribes; academic and research institutions; and other interested partners. Providing a forum for integrating the multiple MPA efforts within the region at the state, federal, tribal, and local levels will not only enhance the effectiveness of existing MPAs, but also result in more efficient, science-based approaches to their future use and the management of the marine environment.

West Coast Pilot Timeframe
The collaboration of multiple partners in the region is essential to successfully completing each element of this effort. Scoping of the pilot with partners will begin in early 2006 and once initiated it is estimated to take several years to complete depending on the availability of information and resources.

For Additional Information
West Coast Pilot Co-Lead and Science
Charles M. Wahle, Ph.D, Director
(831) 242-2052
charles.wahle@noaa.gov

Links
West Coast Pilot: Ecological Characterization
West Coast Pilot: Marine Cultural Resources
West Coast Pilot: Patterns and Impacts of Human Use
West Coast Pilot: Governance Framework