Towed-Diver Surveys,a Method for Mesoscale Spatial Assessment of Benthic Reef Habitat: A Case Study at Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago

An integrated method for benthic habitat assessment is described, in which divers maneuver boards equipped with digital video, temperature, and depth recorders while being towed behind a small boat. The tow path is concurrently recorded by a GPS receiver, and a layback model is applied to more accurately map the data. Percent cover of salient benthic categories is quantified by whole-image analysis of still frames sampled at 30-s intervals. The results of 15 towed-diver surveys at Midway Atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago during a mass coral bleaching event are presented to exemplify the method and are compared to results derived from conventional methods. Towed-diver surveys bridge a gap between large-scale mapping efforts using satellite data and small-scale, roving diver assessments, providing a mesoscale spatial assessment of reef habitats. The spatial coverage of towed-diver surveys provides comprehensive data to managers concerning the extent, intensity, differential taxonomic response, and bathymetric correlates of bleaching.     

Estuary Management and Recreational Fishing Benefits

Recognition of the benefits to society supported by estuary ecosystem functions and services, and threats to these benefits posed by human activities, has led to various public programs to restore and protect estuaries at the federal, state, and local levels. As available budgets shrink, program administrators and public elected officials struggle to allocate limited restoration and protection funds to the highest priority areas. Economic benefit and cost information can provide useful inputs into this decision-making process by quantifying estuary restoration and protection benefits and costs in commensurate terms. In this paper, a combined actual and intended travel behavior model is described that can be applied to estimate the recreational fishing benefits of estuary restoration and protection. The model was estimated for recreational fishing in the Lower Atchafalaya River Basin estuary along the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, USA coast. Changes in freshwater flows into this estuary may affect redfish and speckled trout game fish populations. The model indicates that changes in catch rates of these two species would have a relatively minor affect on annual fishing trips per angler. However, because total effects may be large when effects per angler are aggregated across total anglers, resource management agencies should consider these changes in recreation benefits when evaluating projects that influence the ecology of coastal estuaries, fish populations, and catch rates. Moreover, in other coastal areas or situations, the responsiveness of angling trips to changes in catch rates may vary because of differences in user populations, environmental conditions, fish populations, and fishing experiences.     

Coastal and Ocean Science-Based Decision-Making in the Gulf of California: Lessons and Opportunities for Improvement

The Gulf of California hosts astounding biodiversity that supports numerous economic activities in the region. These activities, and emerging threats, are placing pressure on the region's ecosystems. Government and civil society are working to address threats through several conservation and management mechanisms. Nevertheless, the use and incorporation of scientific information—a key component for creating effective and durable management—is still deficient. This article presents the concept of science integration and discusses the findings of a study that assesses the regional landscape, existing institutional arrangements, and capacity for using science to inform policy and management decisions. It also explores the current use of science within fisheries policy and management and the capacity of the National Network of Information and Research of Fisheries and Aquaculture (RENIIPA) and the State Fisheries and Aquaculture Councils, two mechanisms in the region. Finally, it shares lessons learned and offers recommendations on how the region can strengthen science-based decision-making. Results indicate that while there are some actors in the Gulf of California producing relevant science, there is varying capacity of intermediary groups connecting producers with users of science, or mechanisms in place to ensure that science is being utilized in decision-making processes. Moreover, despite having a well-developed landscape of producers and intermediaries and mechanisms in place for fisheries management in the region, effective science integration is not occurring.     

Marine log transportation and handling systems in british columbia: Impacts on coastal management

Abstract

Over 90 percent of British Columbia's annual log harvest enters into complex water‐based systems of transportation, storage, and handling. These systems have considerable impacts on a wide range of coastal resources and uses. A number of site‐specific conflicts have arisen between forestry and preexisting or emerging values including fisheries, mariculture, recreational boating, and harbor redevelopment. Specific data on the impacts leading to conflict are often fragmentary. However, concerns about highly valued and fragile areas‐particularly estuariesalong with industrial concerns regarding log losses and handling efficiency, have prompted changes in log handling. These include moves to dryland sorting, log bundling, and a redistribution of forestry activities in estuaries to accommodate other values. Conflict adjustments and responses have in the past been largely ad hoc and attempted in a jurisdictional vacuum concerning control of coastal management. A more inclusive strategy is now slowly emerging, which involves the coordinated participation of federal, provincial, and industrial interests.     

The Quiet Revolution in Visual Resource Management: A view from the coast

Abstract

This introductory piece traces the growth of knowledge and activity associated with visual resource management in general. A specific framework of questions regarding methods of coastal zone visual resource management is presented. The state‐of‐the‐art in methodological studies is listed for each question, and the methodological questions are related to the major articles with the special issue of the Coastal Zone Management Journal. Major legal federal statutes, state statutes, and court cases are reviewed in light of visual resource management in the coastal zone. The remaining articles within the special issue that deal with integration of VRM into decision‐making are then arrayed against a management framework. This framework includes regulatory situations for (1) public land management and planning, (2) public projects involving private lands, and (3) public regulation of private projects.     

Examining Local Coastal Zone Management Capacity in U.S. Pacific Coastal Counties

The coastal zone has critical natural, commercial, recreational, ecological, industrial, and esthetic values for current and future generations. Thus, there are increasing pressures from population growth and coastal land development. Local coastal land use planning plays an important role in implementing the U.S. Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) by establishing goals and performance policies for addressing critical coastal issues. This study extends the CZMA Performance Measurement System from the national level to the local land use level by measuring coastal zone land use plan quality and political context in fifty-three Pacific coastal counties. Plan quality is measured using an evaluation protocol defined by five components and sixty-eight indicators. The results indicate a reasonable correspondence between national goals and local coastal zone land use planning goals, but a slight gap might exist between the national/state versus local levels in the overall effectiveness of coastal zone management (CZM) efforts. The results show many U.S. Pacific coastal counties lack strong coastal zone land use plans because the average plan quality score was only 22.7 out of 50 points. Although these plans set relatively clear goals and objectives, they are somewhat weaker in their factual basis, identify a limited range of the available planning tools and techniques, and establish few coordination and implementation mechanisms. The regression analysis results indicate that CZM plan quality was not significantly related to any of the jurisdictional characteristics.     

A New Coastal Policy for South Africa

Treaties on Trial: The Continuing Controversy Over Northwest Indian Fishing Rights by Fay G. Cohen (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986), 229 pages.     

Developing MPA Effectiveness Indicators: Comparison Within and Across Stakeholder Groups and Communities

Shared expectations about marine protected areas (MPAs) might be expected to enhance their effectiveness. This study determined whether members of local communities had common or divergent views about the objectives and indicators of MPA effectiveness. In the central Philippines we used unconstrained and constrained methods to interview people in five stakeholder groups (elders, fishers, leaders, women, and youth) associated with each of 10 community-based no-take MPAs that had been protected between 0 and 21 years. Respondents identified multiple MPA objectives, the most frequently mentioned of which was restoring and sustaining fish populations. The results suggest that MPA age accounts for the greatest level of variation across communities. When unconstrained, progress in enforcement was identified as a key indicator among respondents from younger MPAs while respondents from older MPAs identified increased fish abundance and catch. Although consensus can be reached more easily under constrained conditions, the results derived from unconstrained methods are more revealing of the needs and aspirations of communities. These are likely to contribute more to the search for appropriate management interventions, particularly given that MPAs evolve over time. Hence, the development of MPA effectiveness indicators must be an iterative community-informed process to ensure timely and relevant management interventions.     

Inland boundary determinations for coastal management purposes—an ecological systems approach to requirements of the federal coastal zone management Act of 1972

Abstract

An analysis of ecological systems that both sustain and are sustained by coastal waters provides the key to a biophysical procedure for delineating inland coastal management boundaries. This analysis entails two basic tasks: (1) mapping the ecosystems that compose coastal waters and adjacent areas, and (2) charting sustaining flows among these systems. The resulting boundary encompasses all environments of coastal waters (subaqueous areas containing a measurable quantity of seawater) and all shore‐lands (either emergent or submergent environments that interchange sustaining materials, energy, or biota with coastal waters). As this biophysical procedure depends on the precise location of, and functional transfers among, coastal ecosystems, it provides a means both for assessing the consequences of human actions and for establishing a landward boundary for a management program. Alternative boundaries not based on locations and operations of coastal ecosystems would probably be either arbitrary or of undue extent, nor would such “alternative”; boundaries be an integral part of an ongoing management process.