California’s MPA Network
Rocky intertidal communities monitoring at the Cabrillo State Marine Reserve. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)California’s network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) recently achieved a major milestone, becoming the first conservation area network in the world to be added to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s green list, as well as being the first area to make the list in the United States.
Established in 2012, California’s MPA network has been making waves both locally and abroad due to its success and the example it sets for other regions and MPAs, comprising over 120 marine reserves and conservation areas.
How was California’s MPA Network Established?
From the beginning, the mission of the MPA network has represented the culmination of collaboration between the public, scientists, industry, and the state coming together to manage and preserve these key habitats under the requirements and goals of the Marine Life Protection Act, which simplified, includes:
- Protect the natural diversity and abundance of marine life and ecosystems.
- Help sustain, conserve and protect marine life populations.
- Improve recreational, educational, and research opportunities provided by preserved marine ecosystems.
- Protect marine natural heritage, such as unique and representative wildlife and marine habitats.
- “Ensure California’s MPAs have clearly defined objectives, effective management measures and adequate enforcement and are based on sound scientific guidelines.”
- Manage the State’s MPAs to the extent possible as a network.
Though California is required to have and maintain the network under the Marine Life Protection Act, what this network looks like can change based on the needs of the region. And over the years, the MPAs have changed slightly to improve management and promote the protection of the areas more effectively.
“The MPA network was created using a stakeholder designed, science-guided process and is an extremely impressive network for what it took to get to where it is today. There was a lot of compromise and a lot of collaboration over multiple years before the MPAs were adopted,” explains Amanda Van Diggelen, Senior Environmental Scientist, Supervisor for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Marine Region Outreach Project.
A Bat Star located in Scorpion State Marine Reserve. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
Monitoring California’s MPA Network
The network is set up based on protecting representative habitats and how far apart each habitat is spaced across California’s coast. Habitats include estuaries, sandy beaches, kelp forests, deepwater canyons, and others. Monitoring efforts include looking at the entire ecosystem of that habitat type, both within the established MPA and outside.
Early on, monitoring inside and outside of the network was regionally specific, with the end goal of establishing a baseline of data for the network. In total, there were 37 state-funded regional monitoring projects statewide.
In 2016, though, California began funding long-term MPA monitoring projects. These seven long-term monitoring projects are extensions of the early/baseline monitoring. Monitoring includes population surveys and aquatic vegetation studies that involve tagging, scuba diving and other strategies throughout the water column both within and outside of the areas.
Reef Check California diver survey in Blue Cavern Onshore State Marine Conservation Area. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
Given the size of California and the variety of habitats that require monitoring, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife partners with local organizations to monitor the network.
While some partners gather additional data like water quality conditions, all long-term funded monitoring projects focus on evaluating the habitat and species in the MPA network.
Van Diggelen explains, “Our directly funded monitoring partners focus primarily on the marine life, those species and habitats, that are representative of each those ecosystem.”
Rocky intertidal communities monitoring at the Cabrillo State Marine Reserve. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
One example is the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, which takes volunteer anglers out to specific MPAs and non-MPA reference sites and provides them with the opportunity to fish these waters for the sake of data collection. Anything caught in the areas is released after being measured, identified, and occasionally tagged.
The department also partners with Marine Applied Research and Exploration to use a remotely operated vehicle for surveying deeper waters where scuba divers just won’t be as efficient due to the depth and duration of the survey.
There are many other monitoring projects and partnerships occurring throughout the network, the data from which is compiled into larger data reports to help inform future management decisions.
Basket Stars located in South Cape Mendo State Marine Reserve. (Credit: CDFW and Marine Applied Research and Exploration)
Adaptive Management and Petition-Based Reform
To manage the MPA network, CDFW follows a cyclical three-step adaptive management process. The third step, before the cycle restarts, is a ten-year management review. The CDFW conducted their first large-scale review in 2022, ten years after the network was fully adopted.
“The Decadal Management Review was a comprehensive report that summarized not just research and monitoring, but all of the components and facets of the marine protected area network–public involvement, outreach and education, tribal involvement, enforcement and compliance, and all associated data,” states Van Diggelen.
Instead of looking at the data granularly, Van Diggelen explains that the network is generally looked at as a whole based on the goals of the Marine Life Protection Act.
Remotely operate vehicle (ROV) launch near Anacapa Island. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
She adds, “It’s not just about whether these marine protected areas are individually meeting a biological goal, it’s about if these marine protected areas are collectively contributing to the six goals of the Marine Life Protection Act in their entirety as a cohesive network.”
With the first Decadal Management Review complete, there is now an ongoing petition process to consider changes to the Network. Changes in management for the MPA network are driven by public petitions, where anyone can submit a proposal to modify an MPA. Suggestions can vary from something as small as a name change, all the way to modifying take regulations in an area.
The data from this 10-year review is what informs changes in the MPA networks’ management plans. Suggestions are then evaluated based on the science and the goals of the Marine Life Protection Act before the California Fish and Game Commission approves or denies the petitioned change.
Still a novel practice, public control over changes is foundational to the network’s mission and ensures that all stakeholders have control over a shared resource.
Point Lobos State Marine Reserve. (Credit: CDFW Fish and Wildlife Technician Alexa Mutti)
Working with Industry, Not Against It
According to Van Diggelen, when the MPAs were first established, there were concerns that the network would create a “bottleneck effect, where the areas outside of the marine protected areas would be fished so hard that there would essentially be no life outside of those areas for fishing.”
However, thanks to the years of research and monitoring in the region, such an effect has yet to be observed.
“We’re seeing that that’s not the case. That even after 10 years of shifted fishing effort away from those no-take areas or those areas that might allow for take, but not all types of take, we’re not quite seeing that bottleneck effect that was of primary concern during the planning and establishment process,” states Van Diggelen.
A Garibaldi hiding in the rocks of Blue Cavern Onshore State Marine Conservation Area. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
Despite the concerns, California’s MPA network exists for the betterment of the industry and the enrichment of the public. Additionally, the MPAs give aquatic ecosystems the chance to flourish in the same way that land resources do.
“People love protected parks. They love being able to go and see these wild areas, more or less untouched by humans, and for a long time, the marine environment did not have the same protections,” states Van Diggelen.
She continues, “MPAs and California’s MPA Network are offering the same opportunity to our ocean environment, allowing for the protection of species to flourish and hopefully spill out over into the non-protected area as time passes.”
Diver in Blue Cavern Onshore State Marine Conservation Area. (Credit: Amanda Van Diggelen)
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