Project Start Date: 2000
Background:
Many marine vertebrates including seabirds, pinnipeds, and cetaceans have declined in past decades. Since the late 1980's, Sooty Shearwater numbers in the California Current System have decreased by 75%. Leatherback turtles, Xantu's Murrelets and Pink-footed Shearwaters are now considered to be critically endangered while many marine mammal species, including Steller sea lions, Humpback whales and Blue whales, are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Many of these impacts have been ascribed, in part, to incidental bycatch of fisheries employing gillnet and longline gear. Changes in the prey base may also be responsible for fluctuations in predator populations--some of which may also be due to commercial fisheries.
The management of pelagic (open ocean) food webs represents a novel approach to marine fisheries and ecosystem conservation, and should prove helpful in ensuring sustainable and diverse commercial fisheries in the future, and in conserving biodiversity and marine top predator populations.
Objectives:
To establish pelagic marine protected areas (MPAs) and "no take" marine reserves (MRVs) designed to protect highly migratory marine species, and the habitats upon which they depend.
This will be accomplished using observations of marine birds, cetaceans, and sea turtles as bio-indicators of spatial and temporal variability in pelagic ecosystem / food web productivity and aggregation of important prey species at "hotspots".
Focal Species:
Includes all upper-level predators such as seabirds, turtles and marine mammals.
Habitat Type:
There is a wide range of habitat types found in the California Current System with differing combinations of bathymetric and hydrographic qualities. Examples of topographic habitat types include such features as seamounts, submarine canyons, and shelf breaks. Different hydrographic habitat types include regions of upwelling, eddies or convergence zones.
Partners:
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California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Region
Canadian Department of Fish and Oceans
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society
Canadian Wildlife Service
COMPASS: Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada
Environmental Defense
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
National Marine Fisheries Service
National Marine Sanctuaries
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Park Service
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Wilderness Network
Oregon Ocean Policy Advisory Council
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
Packard Foundation
Point Reyes National Seashore
The Nature Conservancy
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
United Anglers
World Wildlife Fund
Representatives of resource users, including fishers, shipping interests, and oil companies
Key marine scientists form Canada, U.S. and Mexico
Contact:
Peggy Yen |
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The shelf, shelf-break, slope, and pelagic regions are determined by the bathymetry, or the topography of the ocean floor.
Hydrography refers to oceanographic processes such as sea surface temperature, current speed, sea level as well as many others. |
Reports and Publications (pdf format):
Open Ocean MPAs Workshop Report
Pelagic Predators, Prey and Processes (P4): A multi-species approach to the
conservation of offshore organisms and habitats in the California Current System
