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Piloting, Developing, and Incubating New Ventures
This program focuses on developing and institutionalizing new and innovative
approaches for better linking science with policy and management. As its first
such project, OST is incubating the Marine Protected Areas Monitoring
Enterprise, which is a new entity focused on developing and delivering
monitoring data essential for ensuring the long-term adaptive management of the
new statewide system of marine protected areas (MPAs) being designated through the
Marine Life Protection Act.
Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Enterprise
In 1999, the California State Legislature enacted the Marine Life Protection Act
(MLPA). The MLPA requires the State to design and manage an improved network of
marine protected areas (MPAs) to, among other goals, protect marine life and
habitats, marine ecosystems, and marine natural heritage. The MLPA also requires monitoring to ensure that the MPA network meets its
stated goals, to facilitate adaptive management of the MPAs, and to improve understanding of marine systems.
The Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Enterprise was created
to help meet this need. The MPA Monitoring Enterprise is being developed under the
auspices of the Ocean Science Trust, with start-up funding from the
Ocean Protection Council, and began operations in the fall of 2007. The Monitoring Enterprise was created to lead development of sustainable,
informative, and innovative monitoring of California’s MPA network. The mission
of the Monitoring Enterprise is to provide timely information that enables
assessment of the condition and functioning of MPAs, identifies emerging
threats, informs MPA management, and improves understanding of marine
ecosystems.
The MPA Monitoring Enterprise will engage resource managers, policy makers,
researchers, stakeholders, and the public in developing new approaches to
monitoring that provide sound, science-based information to inform future
management decisions and meet the goals of the MLPA. Our
work rests on three main pillars, which will be developed concurrently in the
coming years:
- Science: Support and encourage development, testing, and refinement of
new approaches and tools needed to provide timely and useful
MPA monitoring information.
- Information Management: Manage, assemble, and provide online access to
MPA monitoring data.
- Communications: Develop and deliver monitoring information products to
decision-makers, resource managers, researchers, stakeholders, and the
public.
The MPA Monitoring Enterprise currently has two job openings: Assistant Scientist and Knowledge Manager.
Draft North Central Coast MPA Monitoring Plan
The Draft North Central Coast Marine Protected Areas Monitoring Plan was released for public comment on November 10, 2009. Public comments were due by 11:59 pm on December 21, 2009, and are now being considered. The Monitoring Plan will be revised in consideration of comments received, and then submitted to the California Fish and Game Commission, likely in February 2010.
Obtaining a copy of the draft plan
To download a complete copy of the draft North Central Coast MPA Monitoring Plan please use the following link:
Full MPA Monitoring Plan Document (PDF, 8.65MB)
To download smaller individual sections of the document please use the links below:
- Executive Summary (PDF, 113KB)
- Frequently Asked Questions (PDF, 106KB)
- Schematic of MPA Monitoring Framework (PDF, 127KB)
- Contents & Chapters 1-9 (PDF, 2.95MB)
- Appendices (PDF, 7.38MB)
Reference printed copies of the plan are available at select public libraries and other outlets; a complete list of these locations is available here.
If you would like a CD of the plan to be mailed to you, please send an email with this request and including your name and mailing address to: mpamonitoring@calost.org. A very limited number of additional printed copies of the draft plan is also available, and may be requested by email.
Request for proposals for the North Central Coast Marine Protected Areas Baseline Program
**The RFP deadline has passed. Proposals are currently under review. Funding decisions are expected to be made in January, 2010.**
The North Central Coast Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Baseline Program is a collaborative effort among the State Coastal Conservancy, Ocean Protection Council (OPC), California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), California Ocean Science Trust, MPA Monitoring Enterprise, and California Sea Grant. The program seeks to provide a summary description, assessment and understanding of ecological and socioeconomic conditions, inside and outside North Central Coast MPAs to be designated under the Marine Life Protection Act, near the time of MPA implementation. It also seeks to document initial socioeconomic changes and select ecological changes following MPA implementation. The Program Request for Proposals (RFP) was released July 29, 2009, with proposals due September 28, 2009. Eleven proposals were received, and are currently under review. Funding decisions are expected to be made in January, 2010.
The full RFP is available here.
For more information please visit the California Sea Grant Program website at:
www.csgc.ucsd.edu/FUNDING/APPLYING/NorthCentralCoastMPA2009-10.html
Older materials developed by the MPA Monitoring Enterprise are available in our materials archive.
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