Biodiversity and Conservation: A Hypertext Book by Peter J. Bryant

Chapter 19:
ENDANGERED MARINE HABITATS 

CORAL REEFS
KELP BEDS
OCEANS AND COASTS

Registered UCI students: view the slide show for this chapter, or download it:  http://darwin.bio.uci.edu:80/~sustain/protected/chap19slides.ppt

National Oceans Protection Act of 2005 (Introduced in Senate)[S.1224.IS]

KELP BEDS

Kelp forest depletion | Sea Plants Field Guide to Economically Important SeaWeeds | Maine Seaweed Company - North American Kelp | Monterey Bay Aquarium Habitats Path - Our Kelp Forest Exhibit

OCEANS AND COASTS

California Coastal Commission

Coastal development in California is regulated by a special agency called the California Coastal Commission, which was established by voter initiative in 1972 and made permanent by the Legislature in 1976. The mission of the Commission is to plan for and regulate development in the coastal zone consistent with the policies of the California Coastal Act. The Commission must review and approve Local Coastal Programs for each of the 73 cities and counties in the coastal zone.  The Commission is also responsible for granting permits for any new development in  tidal and submerged lands, and must work on and promote wetland restoration.

The Commission has received mixed reviews for the work of its first 25 years. Although developers complain that it is difficult to get building permits, the agency has approved 98% of the proposals that have come before it.  And it has failed to force many cities and counties--including Los Angeles--to adopt their required LCPs.  It is being argued that the Commission's regulatory approach is not enough to protect the coast, and that the state needs to provide money for outright purchase of threatened areas.  It is estimated that $835 million will be needed over the next 10 years to purchase the areas most threatened by development.

The California Coastal Conservancy

The California Coastal Conservancy, a unique state resource agency established in 1976 by the Legislature, "uses entrepreneurial techniques to purchase, protect, restore, and enhance coastal resources, and to provide access to the shore".  They work in partnership with local governments, other public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and private landowners. The Conservancy has undertaken more than 630 projects along the 1,100 mile California coastline.  Their goals include protecting and enhancing coastal wetlands, streams and watersheds.  They are also involved in improving public access, protecting agricultural lands, and restoring urban waterfronts.

The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge was established by Congress in 1989 to protect the vanishing breeding beaches used by sea turtles.  These undisturbed stretches of beach are essential to the survival of loggerheads (listed as a threatened species) and green turtles (listed as an endangered species) in North America. Even the endangered leatherback turtle occasionally used this refuge as a nesting site.  The USFWS, The State of Florida, Brevard and Indian River Counties, and the private Mellon Foundation have joined forces to purchase additional beachfront acreage in order to increase the size and effectiveness of the Refuge.

Simply preserving habitat is often not sufficient to ensure successful sea turtle proliferation. Loggerhead and other sea turtles nest along the 24 miles of undeveloped beach and wetland of Canaveral National Seashore in Florida.  Egg predation, primarily by raccoons, has become a serious threat to turtle survival.  "Under natural conditions, sea turtle nests should exist in such concentrations that natural predators like raccoons wouldn't decimate populations," says Dr. Robert J. Warren,  a wildlife ecologist at the University of Georgia. "But human development along the coast has removed so much of the nesting environment that every nest is critical."  Compounding the raccoon problem is the fact that the normal predator/prey balance of the coastal ecosystem has been disrupted by the elimination of red wolves and panthers, which once preyed on raccoons, by human activity. Achieving the 60% sea turtle hatch rate for lands within the National Park Service mandated by the Loggerhead Turtle Recovery Plan has been difficult.  In a recent study conducted at the Canaveral  National Seashore, however, turtle egg losses were kept to under 8% by covering nesting sites with screening to keep out raccoons and other predators.

Loggerhead sea turtles go the distance

A similar approach to protecting Kemp's ridley sea turtle is being tried.  Since the primary breeding ground for this sea turtle is in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico, it cannot be protected by a National Wildlife Refuge.  The final Recovery Plan approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1992, however, called for cooperative efforts between the U.S. and Mexico.  During the April to September nesting season, teams of conservationists patrol 80 miles of Rancho Nuevo beach three to five times a day, locate newly laid eggs, and remove them to fenced corrals where they are counted, reburied and monitored during their 42-62 day incubation. Hatchlings are released soon after birth to begin their lives at sea.  1997 saw the largest arribada (massive nesting event) since the inception of the program at Rancho Nuevo.  In 1996, 2,080 nests, 186,000 eggs and about 120,000 hatchlings were recorded.  So far in 1997, more than 2,170 nests and 212,000 eggs have been protected. The hatchling count for 1997 is expected to exceed 30,000.  Recent scientific studies show a steady rebuilding of the Kemp's ridley population.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) includes a coastal plain that serves as the spring calving ground for the 150,000 caribou in the Porcupine river herd.  The refuge also provides a year-round home for Musk oxen, a summer home to many migratory bird species, and is the largest polar bear denning area on land in the U.S. Unfortunately, the Bush administration is eager to open up this pristine wilderness area to oil and gas exploration and drilling.  A Bill to open up the coastal plain to the oil and gas industry has passed in the House of Representatives but faces strong opposition.

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Copyright © 2005 Peter J. Bryant (pjbryant@uci.edu),  School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. Phone (949) 824-4714 Fax (949) 824-3571 A Project of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Global Sustainability

opposition in the Senate.  In October 2001 Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton testified to a Senate Committee on this issue, arguing in favor of oil and gas exploration in the refuge and completely ignoring scientific data from USFWS (her own agency!) on the potential harmful effects of oil drilling on caribou.  She also testified that caribou calving has been concentrated outside the proposed drilling area in 11 of the last 18 years, but in fact calving has been concentrated inside the area.

National Marine Sanctuaries

The goals of the National Marine Sanctuary Program are "to provide enhanced resource protection through conservation and management of the Sanctuaries that complements existing regulatory authorities; to support, promote, and coordinate scientific research on, and monitoring of, the site-specific marine resources of the Sanctuaries; to enhance public awareness, understanding, appreciation, and wise use of the marine environment; and to facilitate, to the extent compatible with the primary objective of resource protection, multiple uses of the National Marine Sanctuaries."  However, commercial fishing is still allowed in these "sanctuaries".

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary | Marine Protected Areas | Govt announces Great Australian Bight Marine Park | Twelve U.S. marine parks get attention | No-Take' Zones Spark Fisheries Debate by Karen F. Schmidt | Sustainable Oceans and Coasts | California Coastal Commission - California Programs for Biodiversity Conservation (Information Center for the Environment - ICE) | OCEAN98

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Copyright © 2002 Peter J. Bryant (pjbryant@uci.edu), School of Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. Phone (949) 824-4714 Fax (949) 824-3571 A Project of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Global Sustainability