A Case Study Of The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

Spatial management design is largely influenced by where and when research has been conducted throughout the designated area. Such information provides the scientific context that is critical for successful decision-making. We performed a meta-analysis on over 1,100 peer reviewed journal articles to discern the most commonly studied regions, habitats, and species within Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), including selected studies conducted prior to sanctuary designation. We found that despite the substantial number of studies conducted within the boundaries of MBNMS, much of that research was isolated to particular locations and/or habitats. Specifically, we found notable differences along both latitudinal and onshore-offshore gradients, with research largely concentrated within the nearshore, central region of the sanctuary in the vicinity of Monterey Bay. Further, within that area much of the taxonomic focus of research to-date was conducted on invertebrates, and much of it occurred in and around the submarine canyon that defines the center of the bay. These results suggest that even for a well-studied area such as MBNMS, the spatio-temporal variation in scientific research needs to be considered when implementing decisions across large areas where information may be limited.

"In the fall of 2008, graduate students from eight universities -- California State University Monterey Bay, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, University of Hawai'i, University of Michigan, University of New Hampshire, University of South Florida, University of Washington -- participated in a 'Distributed Graduate Seminar' (DGS) at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California Santa Barbara. The goal of the semester-long seminar was to examine the role of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) in implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) at the sites that make up the National Marine Sanctuary system. Each university collaborated with one or more Sanctuaries to conduct a case study based on a core set of questions regarding EBM. The products of these case studies encompassed a wide-range of topics, including detailed summaries of existing management strategies and original quantitative analyses and tools for implementing EBM within sanctuary boundaries. The Sanctuary Program's important role as a facilitator of management action was an emergent property of the case studies. They also found that facilitating management actions and engagement of partners is effectively used by sanctuaries and more common than regulatory actions. In April 2009, NCEAS hosted a 'Synthesis Working Group' that brought together representative graduate students and faculty from seven of the eight universities and ONMS staff to examine their case studies and share findings and establish commonalities amongst all Sanctuaries. The following is a synthesis produced at the April meeting of the Seminar case study materials"--Executive summary.