Table Of Content(cid:1)
ARINE
PROTECTED
AREAS
TOOLS FOR SUSTAINING
OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
Committee on the Evaluation, Design, and Monitoring of Marine Reserves and
Protected Areas in the United States
Ocean Studies Board
Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources
National Research Council
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS • 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W. • Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing
Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of
the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Insti-
tute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen
for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report and the committee were supported by grants from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the sponsors.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marine protected areas : tools for sustaining ocean ecosystems /
Committee on the Evaluation, Design, and Monitoring of Marine Reserves
and Protected Areas in the United States Ocean Studies Board
Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources National Research
Council.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-309-07286-7 (hard)
1. Marine parks and reserves. I. National Research Council (U.S.).
Committee on the Evaluation, Design, and Monitoring Marine Reserves and
Protected Areas in the United States. II. Title.
QH91.75.A1 M28 2001
333.78'4—dc21
2001000995
Marine Protected Areas: Tools for Sustaining Ocean Ecosystems is available from the
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Copyright 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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COMMITTEE ON THE EVALUATION, DESIGN, AND MONITORING
OF MARINE RESERVES AND PROTECTED AREAS IN THE UNITED
STATES
EDWARD HOUDE, Chair, University of Maryland Center for Environmental
Sciences, Solomons
FELICIA C. COLEMAN, Florida State University, Tallahassee
PAUL DAYTON, University of California, San Diego
DAVID FLUHARTY, University of Washington, Seattle
GRAEME KELLEHER, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (consultant),
Canberra, Australia
STEVEN PALUMBI, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
ANA MARIA PARMA, Centro National Patagonico, Chubut, Argentina
STUART PIMM, Columbia University, New York
CALLUM ROBERTS, University of York, United Kingdom
SHARON SMITH, University of Miami, Florida
GEORGE SOMERO, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California
RICHARD STOFFLE, University of Arizona, Tucson
JAMES WILEN, University of California, Davis
Staff
SUSAN ROBERTS, Study Director
ANN CARLISLE, Senior Project Assistant
v
OCEAN STUDIES BOARD
KENNETH BRINK, Chairman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
Massachusetts
ARTHUR BAGGEROER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
DANIEL BROMLEY, University of Wisconsin, Madison
OTIS BROWN, University of Miami, Florida
JAMES COLEMAN, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
CORTIS COOPER, Chevron Petroleum Technology, San Ramon, California
G. BRENT DALRYMPLE, Oregon State University, Corvallis
EARL DOYLE, Shell Oil (retired), Sugar Land, Texas
D. JAY GRIMES, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs
RAY HILBORN, University of Washington, Seattle
EDWARD HOUDE, University of Maryland Center for Environmental
Science, Solomons
CINDY LEE, State University of New York, Stony Brook
ROGER LUKAS, University of Hawaii, Manoa
NANCY MARCUS, Florida State University, Tallahassee
BONNIE MCCAY, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
RAM MOHAN, Gahagan & Bryant Associates, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland
SCOTT NIXON, University of Rhode Island, Naragansett
NANCY RABALAIS, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin
WALTER SCHMIDT, Florida Geological Survey, Tallahassee
PAUL TOBIN, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association,
Fairfax, Virginia
KARL TUREKIAN, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Staff
MORGAN GOPNIK, Director
DAN WALKER, Senior Program Officer
ALEXANDRA ISERN, Program Officer
SUSAN ROBERTS, Program Officer
ROBIN MORRIS, Administrative Associate
SHIREL SMITH, Office Manager
ANN CARLISLE, Senior Project Assistant
DENISE GREENE, Senior Project Assistant
JODI BACHIM, Project Assistant
MEGAN KELLY, Project Assistant
vi
COMMISSION ON GEOSCIENCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND
RESOURCES
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER, Chair, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
RICHARD A. CONWAY, Union Carbide Corporation (retired), South
Charleston, West Virginia
LYNN GOLDMAN, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health,
Baltimore, Maryland
THOMAS E. GRAEDEL, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
THOMAS J. GRAFF, Environmental Defense, Oakland, California
EUGENIA KALNAY, University of Maryland, College Park
DEBRA KNOPMAN, Progressive Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
BRAD MOONEY, J. Brad Mooney Associates, Ltd., Arlington, Virginia
HUGH C. MORRIS, El Dorado Gold Corporation, Vancouver, British
Columbia
H. RONALD PULLIAM, University of Georgia, Athens
MILTON RUSSELL, Joint Institute for Energy and Environment and
University of Tennessee (emeritus), Knoxville
ROBERT J. SERAFIN, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder,
Colorado
ANDREW R. SOLOW, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
Massachusetts
E-AN ZEN, University of Maryland, College Park
Staff
ROBERT M. HAMILTON, Executive Director
GREGORY H. SYMMES, Associate Executive Director
JEANETTE SPOON, Administrative and Financial Officer
CHRISTINE HENDERSON, Scientific Reports Officer
SANDI FITZPATRICK, Administrative Associate
vii
Foreword
The Ocean Studies Board (OSB) is pleased to present this report, Marine
Protected Areas: Tools for Sustaining Ocean Ecosystems. It represents the cul-
mination of a two-year, in-depth examination of this controversial approach to
marine resource management that required analysis of issues in both marine
ecology and fisheries science.
For many years the OSB has been interested in topics concerning marine
ecology and the preservation of marine biodiversity. Notable reports in this area
include Priorities for Coastal Ecosystem Science (1994), Understanding Marine
Biodiversity (1995), and From Monsoons to Microbes: Understanding the
Ocean’s Role in Human Health (1999). At the same time, the board has con-
cerned itself with the sound, science-based management of marine fisheries, as
exemplified by studies such as Improving Fish Stock Assessments (1998), Shar-
ing the Fish: Toward a National Policy on Individual Fishing Quotas (1999), and
Sustaining Marine Fisheries (1999). These two interests come together on the
issue of marine reserves, which have been proposed as an ecosystem-based ap-
proach for conserving living marine resources, both for fisheries management
and for preserving marine biodiversity.
It is our hope that this report will serve as a sound basis for future efforts to
design and implement marine reserves and protected areas. It provides a sum-
mary of what we know, recommendations about how to apply that knowledge,
and a description of what we need to know to maximize the effectiveness of this
marine management tool.
The board is grateful to the committee members who volunteered enormous
amounts of their time to complete this ambitious undertaking.*
Kenneth Brink
Chair, Ocean Studies Board
* To view this report on-line, or to learn more about the OSB’s mission and other projects, please
visit our Web site at www.national-academies.org/osb.
ix
Description:Although the ocean-and the resources within-seem limitless, there is clear evidence that human impacts such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution disrupt marine ecosystems and threaten the long-term productivity of the seas. Declining yields in many fisheries and decay of treasured mari
