
Illuminating the oceans' unknowns

Channel Islands Marine Protected Area Project: Background

The Channel Islands MPA Project is being achieved through a partnership with California Department of Fish and Game, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy.

Background - Channel Island Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
Phase I - Exploratory Surveys
Phase II - Quantitative Monitoring Surveys

Background
In November 2002, the California Fish and Game Commission created a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in state waters within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, off Santa Barbara, California.

Map of survey sites

The network includes ten State Marine Reserves (where no take of living, geological or cultural resources is allowed) and two State Marine Conservation Areas (where limited commercial and/or recreational take is allowed).

Fishing was banned in the MPAs in April 2003. Later the same year a monitoring program was set up to document any changes at the site and to provide baseline data for future comparisons.

The California Department of Fish & Game and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary identified ten priority areas around Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands to be surveyed, inventoried and monitored. Sites were chosen by consulting sidescan and multibeam sonar maps that showed the topography of the sea floor, focusing the survey work on rocky areas where most of the fish live. Regular monitoring surveys of the rock reef would then be used to identify any changes in species abundance over time.

MARE's involvement

Phase I - Exploratory Surveys (2003 - 2004)
ROV surveys were used to identify target sites for abundance monitoring, where greater than 80% of the habitat was hard or mixed substrata. Geo-referenced video and oceanographic data was gathered to provide baseline habitat characterization between 20 to 80 metre depths. The video footage was taken to ground truth and enhance the high resolution acoustic maps compiled by US Geological Survey and California State University, Monterey Bay Seafloor Mapping Lab in 2003.

Phase II - Quantitative Monitoring Surveys (2004 - present)
Following the exploratory surveys in 2003, five sites within the reserves were selected for annual monitoring surveys. For each site within a reserve an adjacent site outside the reserve with similar rocky substrate and depth range has been selected for comparison, bringing the total to ten sites. Deep water surveying methods to quantify species abundance using an ROV were developed and tested. These novel survey techniques may assist in the documentation and evaluation of Marine Protected Areas nationwide.

In December 2004, MARE also undertook a survey for the endangered White Abalone in the habitat off the Channel Island's Santa Cruz Island.