Thesis Statement

Marine Protected Areas are a viable, but incomplete, option for protecting, restoring, and sustaining our marine resources.

Conditions for true statement

  1. EFFECTIVNESS must be increased
  2. Regulations must be ENFORCEABLE
  3. MONEY and RESOURCES for IMPLEMENTATION must be found
  4. The Success/Failure of the Plan must MONITORED
  5. OTHER METHODS must be used in conjunction with MPAs

Effectiveness

What is the Definition of Effectiveness? Anything that results in a sustainable fish population in a given area. In other words, more comes in than goes out.


List of Possible Goals For Marine Protected Areas

https://wikis.mit.edu/confluence/x/DgR5

This is a critical topic of discussion for the entire MISSION 2011 Class!!!!!!

Once goals have been defined, what types of variables can be "tweaked" to achieve these goals? 

  • Size
  • Location
  • Duration
  • Time during year
  • Zoning/Degree of Restriction within MPA

Enforceability (Can connect to Gov. and Politics Team)

The MPA must have public support to succeed:

  • Education Programs to highlight importance of issue
    • Adult: University Programs that target those in the fishing industry and environmentalists
    • School-Age
    • At the Sanctuary Itself (Visitor Center) Very Idealistic: People aren't really going to care even after a good 5 minute presentation, something I know from experience.
  • Media/Advertising
  • Vocational training for displaced persons, if necessary

 The MPA must have the backing of governmental authority:

  • Legislation (For Example)
    •  The National Marine Sanctuaries Act (16 USC SS 1431): http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/library/National/NMSA.pdf
    • Magnusson-Stevens Act (16 USC SS 11801-1883)
    • National Park Service Organic Act (16 USC SS 1, 2-4)
    • For others, refer to Pages 167-169 of Marine Protected Areas:  Tools for Sustaining Ocean Ecosystems
  • What possible entitesmight have Enforcement Authority?
    • Local support may be best (ATV)
      • Several Case Studies show local cooperation with government regulation is best solution
      • Create economic incentive for following rules
      • Utilize peer pressure
    • Coast Guard, Navy: Limited to no protection capability; responsibilities are generally to protect the country from national + international threats
    • Maritime Police
    • Environmental Police
    • NOAA/NMFS

Resources

What Possible entities have management authority?

  • Resources Contributed by Private Citizens (How would this affect countries with low GDP?)
  • Private Companies
  • NGOs
  • Various Levels of Government:
    • Local
    • State
    • Federal
    • International

What about Government Subsides of Sustainable Activities and/or the MPA?

Consider the many nations lacking in financial resources. 

Monitoring

Who is to perform the monitoring?

  • Possible to recruit fishermen to participate in scientific monitoring
  • Scientists

How Often to Perform the Monitoring?

What do we do with the data?

Other Methods

Not plausible for MPAs alone to be effectiveness enough (cannot cover enough of the oceans to be the only solution)

 (Connection to work of other teams)
 

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