|
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Major Monitoring Efforts Set for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern California
With the adoption of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in southern California, and the implementation date of Oct 1, 2011, the Surfrider Foundation is very pleased to learn about the $4 million the Ocean Protection Council (OPC) recently awarded to several institutions to conduct monitoring (over a three year period) in order to establish a baseline for the newly established MPAs. The data collected will focus on commercial and recreational activities, and will also analyze marine species and habitat.
 |
| Photo Credit: Wisniewski/Reef Check California |
The exciting part about this data collection is that monitoring will take place inside and outside of protected areas. One of the main reasons Surfrider Foundation supports MPAs is because we are convinced "spillover" from MPAs will help repopulate species and improve overall ocean health outside of protected areas (thus multiplying MPAproductivity). The data collected by SDSU, UCSD, and CA Fish and Game researchers will be particularly interesting as commercial lobster fishermen will help tag and recapture lobsters to assess "spillover" from MPAs to others areas of the ocean and also monitor lobster movement patterns, and how far these little critters travel. To learn more about the different types of monitoring programs, read the press release here.
|
|
