Marine Planning
Since 2001, Ecotrust has worked with federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations and fishing communities to develop transparent and participatory approaches to marine planning and conservation. We bring an open, flexible and collaborative commitment to all our projects.
Our planning tools and analyses are designed to help partners and clients:
- Visualize the ecosystem in a social and economic context.
- Create a participatory approach to incorporating stakeholder knowledge.
- Implement management decisions at appropriate scales.
Along the West Coast of North America, over 6,500 fishermen have used our tools to participate in decisions about the ocean environment. These participatory processes have enabled improved analysis, timely decision making and ecological conservation that preserves coastal livelihoods. Ecotrust’s consulting services are available to assist with marine planning around the world.
Spatial Planning Tools
Ecotrust embraces an open development philosophy and publishes each of the tools below under an open source license. Our consulting services enable the adoption the these tools to specific needs and the analysis of their spatial outputs.
Open OceanMap
Ecotrust's award-winning Open OceanMap allows users to build local participation into the marine spatial planning process. Enabling the compilation of expert knowledge about the economic importance of fishing grounds or other marine resources, Open OceanMap helps scientists, managers and communities understand the ecosystem in a social context. Learn more »
MarineMap
Developed in partnership between the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara, Ecotrust, and The Nature Conservancy, MarineMap was introduced to facilitate the design and evaluation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as defined by California’s Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (MLPAI). Learn more »
Eureka
Eureka is a web-based tool used by Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) to evaluate the biological performance of Marine Protected Areas. With Eureka, managers can easily aggregate monitoring data from a wide number of participants.
Additional Tools
- Delphos is a decision support tool used by Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) to perform multi-criteria analysis in support of sustainable fisheries and marine reserve design.
Ongoing Projects
Oregon's Territorial Sea Planning
Oregon's Statewide Planning Goals require that the state "conserve marine resources and ecological functions for the purpose of providing long-term ecological, economic and social value and benefits to future generations." Ecotrust's spatial planning tools and analyses will inform the state's revision of its Territorial Sea Plan (TSP). To inform the TSP, Ecotrust is collecting spatial information on the economic and sociocultural benefits of marine use, and utilizing analysis and visualization to enable participatory deliberation of potential use scenarios. Learn more »
California Human Use and Values Monitoring
Following the designation of MPAs along California's North Central Coast, Ecotrust and Natural Equity established the Monitoring Human Uses and Values project to better understand the influence of MPAs on human activities. We will research both consumptive (e.g., commercial fishing, recreational fishing, charter fishing) and non-consumptive (e.g., diving, kayaking, whale watching, beach walking) uses of the region, extending from Alder Creek, near Point Arena in Mendocino County, to Pigeon Point, near Half Moon Bay in San Mateo County. This study is one of 11 projects that comprise the North Central Coast MPA Baseline Program, developed by the MPA Monitoring Enterprise, a program of the California Ocean Science Trust, in collaboration with the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), California Department of Fish and Game, and California Sea Grant. Learn more »
Additional Projects
- In 2010, the Washington state legislature passed a bill calling for comprehensive coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) in its state waters. To assist with Washington's CMSP efforts, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Ecotrust are working with the Pacific County Marine Resource Committee (MRC) to develop an online decision support tool to help facilitate Pacific County's efforts to update their shoreline master plan, a multi-objective marine planning process that will provide the foundation for informing forth-coming CMSP efforts on the outer coast of Washington.
- We are assisting the nonprofit organization, Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) to evaluate the biological performance of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Sea of Cortez.
- We are documenting and characterizing harvest practices and understanding of the Bering Sea ecosystem structure and function as part of the North Pacific Research Board Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program.
Past Projects
California's Marine Life Protection Act Initiative
From 2007-10, Ecotrust worked with California's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to incorporate local knowledge into the design of a state-wide marine protected area (MPA) network.Along the coast of California, Ecotrust interviewed over 2,000 commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen and other resource users. The MLPA Initiative is expected to complete its MPA designations in 2011. Learn more »
St. Kitts and Nevis
Ecotrust was retained by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2010 to collect, compile and analyze commercial fishery data in support of a marine zoning plan for St. Kitts and Nevis. Our research team developed and deployed a custom version of Open OceanMap, which was used to collect geo-referenced information from local fishermen about the extent and relative importance of commercial fisheries. Learn more »
Massachusetts Recreational Boater Survey
In 2010, Ecotrust was retained by Massachusetts Ocean Partnership to build a tool that enabled them to collect, compile and analyze data on recreational boating. Their findings documented where boaters go, how often they go out, what they do while boating (e.g., fishing, sightseeing), and how much they spend on boating.
Additional Past Projects
- Ecotrust's marine spatial planning work began in 2001, with the Groundfish Fleet Restructuring Information and Analysis Project. Together with our partners at the Pacific Marine Conservation Council, we developed a set of analytical tools and proposals to support the Pacific Fishery Management Council's restructuring of the coast-wide (California, Oregon and Washington) groundfish fleet.
- We supported the Joint Management Plan Review (JMPR) of three California National Marine Sanctuaries by creating fisheries profiles and analyses of the ways in which commercial fishermen use and value the Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuaries.
- Other past projects include catch share assessment of British Columbia's commercial ocean fisheries and a socioeconomic baseline assessment for the Pribilof Islands Collaborative.
Research
In 2005, Ecotrust joined with Oregon State University to copublish Place Matters: Geospatial Tools for Marine Science, Conservation, and Management in the Pacific Northwest, an early exploration of the use of geographic information systems in ecosystem-based management.
Our paper summarizing the methods used for collecting, compiling, and analyzing data about the spatial extent and relative economic importance of commercial and recreational fishing in the MLPA is: Incorporation of Spatial and Economic Analyses of Human-Use Data in the Design of Marine Protected Areas.
Together with research partners at the Centre for Applied Environmental Decision Analysis at the University of Queensland, Ecotrust tested the effectiveness of MLPA protected area network designs in protecting marine habitats while minimizing social and economic impacts on fishermen and coastal communities. This research was published in the papers:
