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Issues: Oceans

Keeping Oceans Wild
Marine reserves are like national parks, and they are critical to keeping the world's oceans healthy and productive.

Grizzly bears roam through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks without fear of hunters. Sequoias live to be 1,000 years old in Sequoia National Park, and bald cypress thrive in the Everglades. The fish, coral reefs and kelp forests of our oceans, however, receive almost none of the protections accorded these beloved national parks. Currently, less than one hundredth of one percent of U.S. waters are fully closed to oil drilling, mining, fishing, or other extractive industries. But as a new NRDC report makes clear, we can change this by establishing marine reserves -- the equivalent of national parks in our oceans.

The United States controls the waters stretching out to 200 nautical miles from its shores, a marine expanse as large as the total land area of all 50 states. Within the waters of this ocean realm are some of the most extraordinary communities of plants and animals on earth. Because the United States stretches across latitudes from the arctic to the tropics, our oceans contain a greater amount of diversity than almost any other nation. We have Alaskan bays filled with sea lions and salmon, delicate coral reefs that ring the Hawaiian islands, and rocky New England tidepools teaming with shellfish.

Fish Tales
On average, marine reserves have twice as many fish overall and three times as many large fish as in exploited areas. The ability of reserves to shelter large fish is particularly critical to the ecosystem. As fish grow larger, their ability to produce eggs increases exponentially so that in terms of making new fish, one big fish can equal a hundred smaller fish. Particularly in very long-lived species such as Pacific rockfish, large individuals (over 20 years old) produce the majority of eggs for the entire population of fish.

Yet these same oceans form a massive highway that carries thousands of cargo ships each day. We mine them for gravel and sand, fish in them for food, drill them for oil, and dump our waste into them. And we like to live and play beside them -- more than half the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of the coastline, and much of the resulting pollution from those communities spills into the sea. Federal and state governments juggle all these uses simultaneously, sometimes overlooking the larger impact of allowing so much activity in any one place.

We are only just beginning to protect wilderness below the high tide line, but our few existing marine reserves produce a tremendous amount of good news. Research shows that reserves harbor more fish, larger fish, and healthier habitat than are found outside of protected areas.

Just north of Seattle, for instance, sits Edmonds Underwater Park, which prohibits the taking of any marine life. Over 40,000 people visit the park each year to view colorful rockfish, dungeness crabs, anemones, sponges, kelps, and sea cucumbers. In 1993 and 1994, scientists surveyed fish populations in Edmonds Park and another small refuge area, as well as in six other sites in Puget Sound where fishing was permitted. Not only were there more fish in the park -- in some cases almost 10 times as many as in the unprotected areas -- the fish were much larger. These large fish can produce 50 times more eggs than the smaller fish in the depleted areas.

A protected estuary within the Kennedy Space Center has had similar success. These 218 square miles of land and water are home to hundreds of endangered West Indian manatees and green sea turtles. In 1999, scientists published a four-year study that showed a greater diversity of fish inside the Space Center area than in areas immediately adjacent and open to fishing. Seatrout, striped mullet, black drum and red drum -- all popular gamefish -- were both larger and more numerous in the protected areas. Only six black drum were found outside the reserve; inside the reserve were 169 black drum with an average length of 28 inches. Fish were also migrating outside the reserve's borders, to the benefit of fishermen. Recreational fishermen just outside the Space Center's boundaries reported catching record-sized fish. One striped mullet tagged inside the reserve was caught 75 miles away.

A push to increase the number and size of marine reserves is gaining momentum. California recently passed the Marine Life Protection Act to expand the state's network of marine reserves, and in May 2000 President Clinton increased and strengthened the current system of marine protected areas in the United States.

To support the growing movement for marine reserves, NRDC has identified the key elements that need to be considered during the design process:

involve local community members
articulate clear goals
place ecological values first
integrate reserves with other management programs
ensure that the reserve's boundaries are respected

With these strategies in place, we can help establish marine reserves, where -- like national parks -- humans are transient visitors and wildlife and ecosystems thrive.

Based on KEEPING OCEANS WILD: How Marine Reserves Protect our Living Seas, an April 2001 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. For a print copy of this report, see our Publications List.

last revised 4.26.01