Posted on 16-1-2003

Marine Reserve Networks Key To Protecting Oceans

PALO ALTO, California, January 14, 2003 (ENS) - Integrated networks of
marine reserves offer the best formula for protecting and preserving marine
resources, according to a new report released today by the Pew Oceans
Commission. Marine reserves are areas in which no extractive use of any
living creature, fossil, or mineral resource, nor any habitat destruction,
is allowed.

Marine ecosystems in U.S. waters are threatened by overfishing, loss of
coastal habitat, pollution and tourism. "Marine reserves help ocean
ecosystems recover and marine species abound," according to Dr. Stephen
Palumbi, author of the report and a marine sciences professor at Stanford
University. "The best way to protect and preserve marine resources is to
establish dense networks of marine reserves of varying sizes and spacing."

The report, "Marine Reserves: A Tool for Ecosystem Management and
Conservation," finds that marine reserves also contribute to the recovery
of larger marine ecosystems. "Enforced no-take marine reserves generate
powerful changes in local ecosystems that can dramatically alter the
abundance and size of species that are overexploited outside," Palumbi
writes. This report is the final one in a series by the Pew Oceans
Commission, a nonprofit organization that is conducting a comprehensive
review of U.S. ocean policy. The commission plans to offer its
recommendations for a new national ocean policy to Congress and the Bush
administration in early 2003.

The Pew Oceans Commission reports have found the world's oceans are
threatened by a daunting list of problems - overfishing, habitat
alteration, bycatch, recreational threats, pollutants, agricultural runoff,
aquaculture, introduced species, climate change and coastal development.
Today's report recommends that a network of reserves should be implemented
immediately in all major marine habitats in U.S. coastal waters.

The political challenge of creating marine reserves will emerge from
competing economic interests, especially commercial fishermen, who worry
how fishing restrictions in reserves can impact their livelihoods. Still,
the presence of a marine reserve can improve commercial catches. The Pew
study cites research showing that both commercial and recreational
fisheries report greater catches of larger fish near fully protected marine
reserves. Marine reserves are different, and more effective, than patchwork
safeguards because they protect all the elements of a marine ecosystem, and
their goal is to preserve ecosystem function, Palumbi explains. The report
recommends that the design and implementation of multiple reserves in a
habitat should be done adaptively, using the lessons learned from earlier
efforts and involving local citizens representing all uses of ocean
resources. It is vital, the report finds, that all local stakeholders be
involved in the process.

The third recommendation of the report calls for a comprehensive effort to
manage multiple uses of ocean habitats for multiple goals. Other management
efforts should not cease as marine reserves proliferate, the report
recommends, and local efforts have to be integrated at state, national and
international levels. Although marine reserves have been established among
many of different coastlines around the world, less than one percent of the
world's oceans are protected by marine reserves.

An important component in shifting policy on marine resources is the
creation of new ways to value marine ecosystems beyond the worth of what
can be extracted from them, the report explains. Policies need to take into
account the value of the areas for fishing and tourism, but even more
important is the need to value the services marine ecosystems provide for
free. Palumbi cites the work of conservation biologist Robert Costanza and
others, who estimated that the value of the ecosystems provided by the
global biosphere is about $30 trillion per year. This is higher than the
value of the world's entire industrial output. "Marine ecosystems provide
many such services, including capture of sediments by wetlands, protection
from coastal storm damage by reefs or mangroves, production of oxygen, and
sequestration of carbon dioxide," Palumbi wrote, adding that the study
found coastal marine ecosystems contribute some $12 trillion of the $30
trillion total. The open ocean's contribution is valued at some $8 trillion.

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy will hold a public meeting to discuss
policy options on January 24, 2003, at the Ronald Reagan Building and
International Trade Center Amphitheater in Washington, D.C. For further
information on the meeting, contact Terry Schaff at the U.S. Commission on
Ocean Policy, by phone, 202-418-3442, or by e-mail:
schaff@oceancommission.gov