MPAs as Management Tools in Northern Boreal Ecosystems: What Are Our Goals and How Do We Get There?

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have become increasingly popular as management tools in recent years.  While many MPAs have been successfully established in tropical reef systems, fewer MPA examples exist in temperate or subartic systems (e.g. North Pacific, Bering Sea) where species diversity is lower, abundance of single species is higher, and many fish species exhibit large amounts of movement in one or more of their life history stages thus covering large geographic areas. In addition, in the subarctic systems, MPAs are often located in remote locations that are expensive to study and therefore data on local habitat and fauna are difficult to obtain. These conditions may present a different set of challenges for designing successful MPAs than the ones for tropical systems. 

This presentation will review the most common goals and mechanisms for MPAs as successful management tools in subarctic ecosystems and discuss possible scenarios for implementation.  Many times successful MPA design is hampered by difficulties in communication between scientists, decision makers, and user groups.  The author will examine the different expectations of each group and provide possible suggestions on how to improve the MPA design implementation process. The goal is to stimulate discussion and communication between the different groups involved in the MPA design and implementation process.

Ideas for this presentation were developed during several joint workshops on MPAs between the NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center (Seattle), North East Fisheries Science Center (Woodshole), and the Institute of Marine Research (Bergen).