Ocean Communities 3E ANalysis (OCEAN)
Space matters in the marine environment. The geographic locations of critical habitats, fish abundance and fishing and other human activities all play significant roles in marine management. At all government levels along the west coast of North America spatial closures are used as one option for addressing problems stemming from the historic disregard for multi-species and ecological linkages that characterize the ocean environment. This disregard has led to declining fish populations and ecosystem health generally, resulting in diminishing fishing opportunities and deteriorating economic situation of coastal communities. Communities and managers urgently need spatially explicit databases and tools that can integrate and depict multiple layers of ecological, economic and sociocultural information to address this set of linked issues.
Ecotrust is developing a suite of tools that address this need and enable the integrated ecological and socioeconomic assessment of fishery policy and marine conservation, and their effects on coastal communities — the Ocean Communities "3E" ANalysis, or OCEAN. The E stands for economy, ecology and equity, all of which must be considered in a long-term approach to ocean and fisheries management. OCEAN comprises databases, analyses and tools that allow scientists, managers and communities to take a systemic look at ecosystems and management issues. OCEAN continues to grow, building on both proprietary and third-party technologies as well as quantitative and qualitative information across multiple scales — both temporal and spatial.
Past OCEAN Projects
One application of OCEAN is the Groundfish Fleet Restructuring Information and Analysis Project. Together with our partners at the Pacific Marine Conservation Council, an Ecotrust team developed a spatially explicit analysis of various options for implementing the capacity reduction goals of a federal groundfish fishery strategic plan entitled Transition to Sustainability adopted by the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). The top priority of the plan was to bring the harvest capacity of the fishery in line with resource productivity by reducing the coast-wide (California, Oregon and Washington) fleet by at least 50%, while maintaining a diverse fleet, by both port and gear type. Mitigating the effects of this transition requires systematic information about the coast-wide fishery and the communities whose livelihoods depend upon it. The Ecotrust GIS team built a complex geographic information system (GIS) and statistical model that facilitates the analysis of various fleet reduction scenarios in terms of the kinds of vessels and gears used to target particular species in particular habitats, linking these "nodes" to socioeconomic considerations in coastal communities. Results from the analysis of various fleet reduction scenarios were presented to the PFMC, scientists, fishermen and community and community partners, where the OCEAN tools and analyses have been very favorably received.
Ecotrust also employed the OCEAN toolkit in support of the Joint Management Plan Review (JMPR) process to analyze the ways in which commercial and sport fishermen use three marine sanctuaries on the central California coast — Gulf of the Farallones, Cordell Bank, and Monterey Bay.
Ongoing OCEAN Projects
The careful implementation of California's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) will consider how new spatial restrictions on the water can affect communities and local economies along the coast. Beginning with the design of a network of marine protected areas, the MLPA Initiative turned to Ecotrust for assistance. Through a more accurate characterization of fishing grounds, the OCEAN team will incorporate fishermen's experience to constrain and improve upon existing data — effectively bringing these expert voices to the table and ensuring that the best available information is utilized.
The MLPAI has divided the California coast into five regions. Work on the Central Coast region in 2007 has resulted in 29 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). In 2007, Ecotrust began work on the North Central Coast region, with a team of staff visiting port communities to interview fishermen about areas of economic value. Ecotrust then performed an analysis of the economic impacts of spatial closures. Ecotrust has been retained again in 2008 to interview fishermen in the South Coast region. The MLPA Initiative is expected to complete its MPA designations by 2011.
