Management & Science

MPA Management & Enforcement

Effective management and enforcement is essential to protect and preserve these valuable marine resources while still allowing human uses that are compatible with resource protection. Education and outreach is a vital part of the enforcement plan by helping to inform the public about the regulations and allowed fisheries (if any) in MPAs.

Through continuous monitoring of MPAs, California is utilizing an adaptive management strategy whereby future management plans are informed by real-time monitoring results.

• California Ocean Resources Management Program
  
  
• Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
  
  
• CDFG MPA Regulations
  
  
• National Marine Fisheries Service – Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act
  
  
• National Marine Sanctuaries Act
  
  
• National Marine Sanctuaries Enforcement
  
  
• National Marine Sanctuaries Management

Science & Monitoring of MPAs

Scientific monitoring of our marine ecosystem is important to understand the ecological effects of implementing MPAs as management tools.

Below are a variety of monitoring and research activities being conducted on the Central Coast and also some ways citizens are able to get involved in the monitoring of their local waters.

• Central Coast Groundfish Project
  
  
• PISCO – Marine Protected Areas
  
  
• PISCO MLPA Central Coast Study Region Baseline Data
  
  
• PISCO – Design considerations of MPAs
  
  
• PISCO MPA Monitoring Report
  
  
• NMFS
  
  
• USGS
  
  
• SIMON
  
  
• Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network
  
  
• California Ocean Science Trust's - MPA Monitoring Enterprise
  
  
• Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies for Coastal Oceans (PISCO) Science of Marine Reserves – 2nd edition U.S. Version, 2007 (5.7MB PDF file)
  
  
• Monitoring MPAs in Deep Water Off Central California–2007 IMPACT Submersible Baseline Survey, Richard Starr and Mary Yoklavich, et al. University of California Cooperative Extension – Sea Grant Program, Publication No. T-067 (3.2MB PDF file)

Opportunities for the public to get involved: