A Scientific Synthesis of Marine Protected Areas in the United States: Status and Recommendations

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a key tool for achieving goals for biodiversity conservation and human well-being, including improving climate resilience and equitable access to nature. At a national level, they are central components in the U.S. commitment to conserve at least 30% of U.S. waters by 2030. By definition, the primary goal of an MPA is the long-term conservation of nature; however, not all MPAs provide the same ecological and social benefits. A U.S. system of MPAs that is equitable, well-managed, representative and connected, and includes areas at a level of protection that can deliver desired outcomes is best positioned to support national goals. We used a new MPA framework, The MPA Guide, to assess the level of protection and stage of establishment of the 50 largest U.S. MPAs, which make up 99.7% of the total U.S. MPA area (3.19 million km2). Over 96% of this area, including 99% of that which is fully or highly protected against extractive or destructive human activities, is in the central Pacific ocean. Total MPA area in other regions is sparse – only 1.9% of the U.S. ocean excluding the central Pacific is protected in any kind of MPA (120,976 km2). Over three quarters of the non-central Pacific MPA area is lightly or minimally protected against extractive or destructive human activities. These results highlight an urgent need to improve the quality, quantity, and representativeness of MPA protection in U.S. waters to bring benefits to human and marine communities. We identify and review the state of the science, including focal areas for achieving desired MPA outcomes and lessons learned from places where sound ecological and social design principles come together in MPAs that are set up to achieve national goals for equity, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation. We recommend key opportunities for action specific to the U.S. context, including increasing funding, research, equity, and protection level for new and existing U.S. MPAs.

Mismatches in scale between highly mobile marine megafauna and marine protected areas

“…A critical consideration is the level of protection afforded by MPAs, as well as what threats they limit, as MPAs vary widely in the protections they offer or enhanced. For example, in the US, 96% of the largest MPAs are highly protected meaning they limit extractive activities, however these occur almost exclusively in remote Pacific regions where extractive activities were limited to begin with (Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022). Additionally, in some cases, populations of the species studied herein are increasing (e.g., northern elephant seals), despite mismatches in scale of MPA protections, suggesting that other, non-MPA management interventions are positively impacting their recoveries.…”

“…The United Nations (UN) is actively negotiating the implementation of MPAs in regions beyond national jurisdictions (i.e., the 'High Seas') (United Nations, 2017), regions that are particularly important for marine megafauna (Harrison et al, 2018;Beal et al, 2021;Davies et al, 2021b). Moreover, in 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called to increase the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 from 10% to up to 40% of the ocean to be protected by 2030 (Hilborn, 2016;IUCN, 2016;Jefferson et al, 2021), and many countries and Tribal nations have come out in support of these goals (Allen et al, 2021;Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022). Large MPAs (> 100,000 km 2 ) have increasingly emerged over the last decade, in part to achieve those targets (O'Leary et al, 2018), though many of the large, highly protected MPAs are placed in remote regions where threats and human conflicts are limited, while MPAs closer to human populations are often more limited in protections offered (Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022).…”

“…Moreover, in 2016 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called to increase the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 from 10% to up to 40% of the ocean to be protected by 2030 (Hilborn, 2016;IUCN, 2016;Jefferson et al, 2021), and many countries and Tribal nations have come out in support of these goals (Allen et al, 2021;Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022). Large MPAs (> 100,000 km 2 ) have increasingly emerged over the last decade, in part to achieve those targets (O'Leary et al, 2018), though many of the large, highly protected MPAs are placed in remote regions where threats and human conflicts are limited, while MPAs closer to human populations are often more limited in protections offered (Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022). In addition to achieving targets, the push to establish larger MPAs has been fueled by i) the successes of coastal MPAs, ii) a recognition that most of the global ocean is not coastal, and iii) the need to protect large scale processes that characterize oceanic systems (e.g., long-distance animal movements) (Longhurst, 2010;Block et al, 2011).…”

Assessing the quantity and quality of marine protected areas in the Mariana Islands

“…Our application of the MPA Guide coincided with an assessment of the 50 largest MPAs in the United States that also classified the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument (Sullivan-Stack et al, 2022). Our assessment diverged from Sullivan-Stack et al, who classified the area as Fully Protected, while we opted to classify this area as Incompatible with the Conservation of Nature.…”

UN Ocean Conference needs transparent and science-based leadership on ocean conservation

“…Most are also only designated and not implemented, with management being also weak in most MPAs due to the lack of staff and cooperation among entities [7]. This is a pattern seen in many other countries, which calls for an urgent change in the way MPAs have been declared and implemented [14,18]. The MPA GUIDE provides a framework to assess protection levels and stages of establishment, which are strongly associated to MPA outcomes [2,19].…”