Stakeholders heard what’s going on with baseline studies of existing fish and other marine species in Marine Protected Areas along the San Diego coast, including La Jolla and Pacific Beach, on March 20.
The public meeting at the Marina Village conference center was hosted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Ocean Protection Council and Ocean Science Trust. It drew scientists, fisherman and other consumptive ocean users, as well as graduate students eager to hear about progress being made with MPAs.
Required by the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act and in effect since Jan. 1, 2012, MPAs were created to help repopulate dwindling fish and other marine species. Known as “underwater state parks,” MPAs set aside sensitive ecosystems via the creation of no-fishing zones to allow marine life and habitats an opportunity to recover and thrive.
Some fisherman and other consumptive ocean users have been critical of the MPA concept. They questioned its viability, arguing it crowded their commercial interests while threatening the local marine-oriented economy.
MPA supporters countered that they are absolutely essential to allow fish and marine species adequate time to recover from commercial fishing, as well to help restore degraded marine ecosystems.
“We’re here to provide you the key findings of the baseline monitoring work being done on our South Coast MPA region,” said Becky Ota of California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’re here to provide this information as a springboard into what needs to happen for further monitoring of MPAs as a whole.”
Marine ecosystems change over time, and baseline monitoring to determine existing conditions of ocean species is a critical first step in documenting the status quo of San Diego ocean conditions.
Scientific data gathered during South Coast MPA baseline monitoring will guide future ocean management practices regionally. Baseline monitoring analysis will also improve understanding of fish, lobster and other key marine species, while tracking their numbers, size and movements.
La Jolla has two adjoining MPAs at the South La Jolla State Marine Conservation Area and South La Jolla State Reserve, which together cover 7.51 square miles, stretching from Palomar Avenue to Missouri Street in Pacific Beach. They are two of 36 new marine protected areas adopted by the California Department of Fish and Game Commission as part of the Marine Life Protection Act. Additionally, the historic marine protected area at La Jolla Shores, stretching to the Scripps Pier, was also retained.
Scripps marine ecologist Ed Parnell and diver Danielle Muller of Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, gave slide presentations.
The goal of MPA monitoring, noted Muller, is for biologists to know “how many plants and animals there are, and where they’re at.” She added ocean conditions — winds, waves and currents — as well as topographical features on ocean bottoms, help guide researchers’ studies. She added the location and movements of many ocean species are “driven by the temperature and salinity of the water.”
In his talk, Parnell detailed his studies on the local spiny lobster, a species important to the commercial fishing industry, located in and around La Jolla MPAs.
“We wanted to study the lobster populations, comparing their numbers in protected MPA areas versus unprotected areas outside MPAs,” said Parnell noting lobsters were caught, tagged, released and recaptured in metal commercial traps. Parnell said studies thus far have shown that lobsters tend to be larger, and grow faster, as you head north up the coast from San Diego.
Parnell suggested the north-south size differential of lobsters might be attributed to fishing outside MPAs, which depletes the number of larger-sized lobsters allowed to be legally taken by commercial anglers.
To learn more about South Coast MPA baseline monitoring, and to access data, visit oceanspaces.org/scsotr.