A Marine Protected Area (MPA) is a broad term that covers a variety of marine areas with varying levels of restriction to protect living, non-living, cultural, and/or historic resources. The World Conservation Union defines Marine Protected Area as "any area of the intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment”.

MPAs are established for a multitude of reasons: to protect a certain species such as: the Humpback Whales of Hawaii; to benefit fisheries; to protect unique habitat; or to protect entire ecosystems like our nation’s newest reserve: the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as discussed in Sharks: Stewards of the Reef. Marine protected areas can be very large like the NWHI, or very small like the Rose atoll in the South Pacific, and can even be established temporally to ensure the successful reproduction of marine species.

In the USA, we have established a series of marine protected areas called Marine Sanctuaries, funded by Congress and administered by NOAA with some oversight by the Fish and Wildlife Services, National Marine Sanctuaries, and local agencies. These Sanctuaries are established to protect historical sites and important cultural sites in addition to protecting marine species. In California we have several Sanctuaries like the Cordell Bank, the Gulf of the Farallons off the San Francisco coastline, the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary and the Channel Islands of Santa Barbara. Sanctuaries have mixed use, with some restrictions including fisheries, oil and gas mining and tourism in part, but not all of the Sanctuary. Both commercial and recreational fisheries occur in many of the sanctuaries.

The greatest restrictions on fishing are termed 'no take' areas, where all forms of fishing are prohibited.

It is important to recognize that not all marine protected areas are protected, and even protected areas like the Monterey Bay, are not protected from runoff and other adverse affects from the land. Pollutants from the land including fertilizers, oil, pesticides and fecal coliform all can enter a Sanctuary or protected areas. As observed in Sharks: Stewards of the Reef, the Main Hawaiian Islands coral reefs have been severally impacted from overfishing and run off from the land. This is why the large and remote areas like the NWHI are so important for marine conservation. These islands are not heavily fished, have a high percentage of top predators like sharks, and have some of the healthiest coral reefs in the North Pacific. As Dr. Enric Sala of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography points out in the film, marine reserves can in turn, benefit areas downstream or outside the protected areas, far outside their boundaries.

Studies by Roberts et al and others have demonstrated that areas closed to fisheries can benefit fisheries along the margins of the no fishing zone. In one study, a network of five small reserves in a Carribbean Island increased adjacent catches of artisanal fishers by between 46 and 90%, within 5 years of creation, depending on the type of gear the fishers used. Other studies indicate that the size of a marine reserve can have an important impact on the recovery of a species of an entire ecosystem like a coral reef.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument
http://hawaiireef.noaa.gov/
Our newest Sanctuary, and the nations first National Marine Monument covers roughly 140,000 square miles of reefs, atolls and shallow and deep sea (out to 50 miles offshore) in the Pacific. Located a few hundred miles north of the Main Hawaiian Island of Oahu, and spanning over 1200 miles (see map in images), this monument is larger in area than all of the nations terrestrial monuments. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument is the largest marine protected area in the world, containing approximately 10 percent of the tropical shallow water coral reef habitat in U.S. territory.

As featured in Sharks: Stewards of the Reef, the monument supports 7,000 species, one quarter of which are endemic- that is unique to Hawaii. Prominent species include the threatened Green Sea Turtle or Honu (Chelonia mydas) and the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal (Monachus schauinslandi) called Ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua. This name translates literally as "the dog that runs in the rough (seas)." Other threatened and unique species includes the Laysan and Nihoa Finches, the Nihoa Millerbird, Laysan Duck, numerous species of plants including Pritchardia palms, and several species of arthropods.

In the past, commercial fisheries such as the lobster fishery have been severely depleted, with a deleterious effect on the Monk Seal, who favors this prey. Although this fishery has been closed, an ongoing extraction of deep sea bottom fish opakapaka, the Hawaiian Pink Snapper (Pristipomoides filamentosus) and onaga or ula’ ula (Etelis coruscans) is occurring in the islands to feed the high-end Honolulu restaurant trade.

According to the Sanctuary Plan, these commercial fishing licenses will terminate by 2011. Some areas will be open for tourism where visitors will be permitted to undertake such activities as sport fishing, snorkeling, diving, and sailing. Others will be closed entirely to benefit recovery of sensitive habitat or to allow breeding of seabirds like the Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis).

Other Islands like Nihoa and Mokumanamana contain historical Hawaiian shrines and burial sites, and have restricted access for scientific, cultural and educational use.

References

Roberts Callum M., James A. Bohnsack, Fiona Gell, Julie P. Hawkins, Renata Goodridge, Effects of Marine Reserves on Adjacent Fisheries Science 30 November 2001:Vol. 294. no. 5548, pp. 1920 – 1923

Christie, Patrick, "Marine Protected Areas and Biological Successes and Social Failures in Southeast Asia." School of Marine Affairs and Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. University of Washington. Washington. January 5th, 2004. Halpern, B. and R. Warner (2002). "Marine reserves have rapid and lasting effects." Ecology Letters 5: 361-366.

Hoyt, E. (2005) Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises. Earthscan, London, 516pp. Lubchenco, J., S. R. Palumbi, et al. 2003. Plugging a hole in the ocean: The emerging science of marine reserves. Ecological Applications 13:S3-S7

Pauly, D. et al, "Towards sustainability in world fisheries." University of British Columbia, Canada. 2002 Russ, G. R. and A. C. Alcala (2004). "Marine reserves: long-term protection is required for full recovery of predatory fish species." Oecologia 138: 622-627.

Shang-Ping Xie, W Timothy Liu, Qinyu Liu, Masami Nonaka (2001) Far Reaching Effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean- Atmosphere System Science Vol 292 15 June: 2057-2060

Northwestern Hawaiian Marine National Monument Established http://www.hawaiireef.noaa.gov/management/.