Marine Protected Areas in Alaska: ADF

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Marine Protected Areas in AlaskaADFGs Program

• Doug Woodby
• Alaska Department of Fish and Game
• Juneau, Alaska
• with help from Cori Cashen, Kristen Mabry, Janet
  Schempf, Ellen Fritts, Lance Trasky, Glenn
  Seaman, Carol Barnhill, Kerri Tonkin, Kimberly
  Phillips, and Tim Haverland

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Topics

• Public demand and Industry Concern
• Public process for selection of Marine Protected
  Areas
• MPA Task Force Report to the Board of Fisheries
• Implications/Applications
• Fishery management
• Ecosystem monitoring

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Definitions

• Marine Protected Area Areas designated for
  special protection to enhance the management of
  marine resources (NRC 2001) with year-round
  protection (NOAA 2001)
• Marine Reservezones within an MPA where
  removal or disturbance of resources is
  prohibited no-take areas (NRC 2001)

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Trawl and Special Groundfish Closures
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Cape Edgecumbe (Sitka) Pinnacles

• Closed to taking of all groundfish
• Protects significant concentrations of lingcod

7.7 km2
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State Game Refuges and Sanctuaries
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State Critical Habitat Areas
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Steller Sea Lion Critical Habitat

• Areas defined by radius and season

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Impetus for MPA Public Process

• Public concern with fishery failures
• At least 25 of worlds fisheries are overfished
• Examples of recent Alaskan fishery failures
• Dungeness crabs Yakutat, PWS, Cook Inlet
• Red king crab Kodiak
• Shrimp PWS, Cook Inlet, Kodiak/Westward
• Rockfish local depletions
• Historic Alaskan fishery failures
• Bowhead whale
• Stellers sea cow

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Impetus for MPA Public Process (2)

• Executive Order 13158 (2000)
• Directive to develop national system of MPAs
• Public proposals to Board of Fisheries, 2001/02
• Proposals 42 402 (incl. PWS), 424 for Marine
  Reserves
• ADFG staff interest in MPAs as fishery
  management tools
• Mitigation to meet provisions of Magnuson-Stevens
  Act (1996)
• Essential Fish Habitat (EFH)
• Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC)
• VS.
• Industry concern for further loss of fishing
  areas

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ADFGs Role

• Recommendations to the Board of Fisheries
  Focus on reserves in relation to
  fisheries
• Recommendation for process
• Goals and uses of MPAs in Alaska
• Enhanced public participation
• Site selection, size, and other design criteria
• Monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness
• Literature review of the scientific basis
• Catalogue and GIS maps of areas
• Review of legal process for designating MPAs
• Review of programs in other jurisdictions
  Federal U.S., BC, WA, OR, CA

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ADFG Task Force

• Commercial Fisheries Division
• Earl Krygier, Denby Lloyd, Kristin Mabry, Tory
  OConnell, Charlie Trowbridge, Doug Woodby
  (chair)
• Habitat Division
• Janet Hall-Schempf
• Sport Fish Division
• Scott Meyer
• Wildlife Conservation
• Bob Small
• Commissioners Office
• Rob Bosworth
• Not a public body
• Recommendations out for review, 2-3 months.

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Goals for MPAs and Reserves

• Habitat protection
• e.g., corals
• Conserve biodiversity
• Improve fishery management
• Bet hedging against risk
• Reduce exploitation rate
• Protect spawning andnursery areas
• Provide baseline environmental data

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Conserving Biodiversity (Inside Reserves)

• Reserves are effective for increasing
• Fish abundance 2X (Halpern in press)
• Average fish size
• Species richness (usually)
• These results are from mostly sedentary species
  in tropical reef systems
• Results not surprising (in hindsight)
• Exponential increase in fecundity with fish size

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Reserves as Fishery Management Tools

• Q Does fishery yield increase outside reserves?
• A major concern for industry
• A Depends on many factors, including dispersal
  of larvae, juveniles, and adults.
• In theory, depends on assumptions (Hastings and
  Botsford 1999, Guénette et al. 2000)
• Experimentally, hard to assess
• In practice
• sometimes yes (Murawski et al. 2000, Roberts et
  al. 2001)
• sometimes no (Frank et al. 2000)

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Trawl Effort, 91-93
Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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50 Increase in SSB since 1994
closure
Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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400 Increase in SSB since 1994
closure
Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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800 Increase in SSB since 1994
closure
Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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1600 increase since 1994
Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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Courtesy of Paul Rago et al., NMFS, Woods Hole
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Some Lessons from Georges Bank

• All four species had been heavily exploited
• Greatest benefits for most sedentary species
  mobility CodHaddockFlounderScallop
• Placement of closed areas is important
• Spawning areas
• Juvenile rearing areas
• Source areas as opposed to Sinks
• Not a controlled experiment
• Other restrictions contributed to increases in
  SSB
• Fishing effort is still excessive

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Alternative Lesson Scotian Shelf

• Juvenile haddock closed area, 1987 (Frank et al.
  2000)
• No effect on recruitment or survival
• Previously over-exploited hard to recover
• Large-scale environmental changes (cooling)
• Older fish not protected (outside closed area)
• Not a complete closure fixed gear allowed until
  1993
• Closed areas alone are not sufficient
• Need additional control measures

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Reserves as Controls

• Purpose
• to distinguish fishing or other human-induced
  effects from environmental effects
• Examples
• Glacier Bay worlds largest temperate marine
  reserveUSGS, NPS, ADFG cooperative research
  agreement
• Sea urchin and sea cucumber fishery control areas
  SE

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Dive Fishery Closed Areas - SE Alaska

• Sea cucumber closures for subsistence protection
  (14)
• Sea lion rookeries (4)
• Research controls (4)
• sea urchins
• sea cucumbers
• Sampling for
• density
• growth
• recruitment

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Reserves as Controls

• Needs
• Review existing closures and available data
• Funding issue
• Review the existing fisheries and needs for
  closures
• Fisheries as experiments most lack controls
• Public support
• Careful experimental design
• Consider effect of displaced effort

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Summary Conclusions

• ADFGs program
• Recommending a public process
• Significant public (stakeholder) process needed
• Not recommending specific closed areas
• Opportunity to learn from mistakes elsewhere
• Reserves are
• No panacea for fisheries
• Tools, useful in combination with other fishery
  management measures
• Important for ecosystem monitoring