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Marine Protected Areas in the Canadian Pacific: Do They Fulfill Network Criteria?
As a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada has committed to establishing a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) that effectively conserves at least 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Research shows that the most effective MPAs are large, well enforced, no-take, and designed as part of a network. Canada's Pacific MPAs, designated site-by-site, cover approximately 3% of Canadian Pacific waters. We investigated how these MPAs could effectively contribute to Canada's national network by analyzing the implementation of management intent through the application of fisheries closures and conducting a preliminary assessment of their size and spacing relative to scientific guidelines. Fisheries closures outside of MPAs were similarly assessed. Results showed that 90% of existing MPAs were intended to exclude commercial fishing, yet only 2.5% fully or partially met this goal, therefore management intent was not achieved. Further, existing MPAs were small, 75% less than 10 km2 in size, but were reasonably spaced, from one to 50 km apart. While a suite of fisheries closures may be better suited to effectively contribute to a network than MPAs without fisheries closures, they would require permanent designations and management plans to meet network inclusion criteria.
Marine Protected Areas in the Canadian Pacific: Do They Fulfill Network Criteria?
As a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada has committed to establishing a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) that effectively conserves at least 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Research shows that the most effective MPAs are large, well enforced, no-take, and designed as part of a network. Canada's Pacific MPAs, designated site-by-site, cover approximately 3% of Canadian Pacific waters. We investigated how these MPAs could effectively contribute to Canada's national network by analyzing the implementation of management intent through the application of fisheries closures and conducting a preliminary assessment of their size and spacing relative to scientific guidelines. Fisheries closures outside of MPAs were similarly assessed. Results showed that 90% of existing MPAs were intended to exclude commercial fishing, yet only 2.5% fully or partially met this goal, therefore management intent was not achieved. Further, existing MPAs were small, 75% less than 10 km2 in size, but were reasonably spaced, from one to 50 km apart. While a suite of fisheries closures may be better suited to effectively contribute to a network than MPAs without fisheries closures, they would require permanent designations and management plans to meet network inclusion criteria.
Marine Protected Areas in the Canadian Pacific: Do They Fulfill Network Criteria?
Robb, Carolyn K. (author) / Bodtker, Karin M. (author) / Wright, Kim (author)
Coastal Management ; 43 ; 253-269
2015-05-04
17 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Marine Protected Areas in the Canadian Pacific: Do They Fulfill Network Criteria?
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