Grantmaking Blog

If you’ve perused our website, you may have come across a description of MMT’s investment in ocean conservation.  MMT has always had a strong commitment to the stewardship of Oregon’s land-based natural resources.  In 2006, we learned that an incredibly small portion of private funding for the environment goes to ocean conservation.  Yet we knew that many Oregon communities depend on healthy marine ecosystems to support commercial and recreational fishing, surfing, kayaking, birding, whale watching and more.

Since then, we’ve granted $2 million to organizations promoting ocean ecosystems-based management, a holistic approach to resource management that recognizes the interdependence of humans, animals and plants and the environmental conditions that support them.  In addition to raising awareness of the multiple demands we are placing on Oregon’s territorial sea, the groups have promoted a limited set of marine reserves and protected areas to conserve ecologically significant ocean areas.  Not least of MMT’s reasons for supporting this work is evidence that marine reserves can help restore and sustain vibrant fisheries.  Another important reason is the importance of setting aside biologically diverse areas for scientific study in the face of impending alternative energy and aquaculture developments.

In December 2010, Oregon's Ocean Policy Advisory Council endorsed community team recommendations for marine reserves and protected areas at Cape Falcon (Manzanita), Cascade Head (Lincoln City) and Cape Perpetua (Yachats).  The three proposed areas, combined with pilot sites at Otter Rock (Depot Bay) and Redfish Rocks (Port Orford), will protect less than five percent of Oregon’s territorial sea in no-take reserves.  According to scientists Brian Tissot (Washington State University) and Mark Hixon (Oregon State University), they will provide a valuable demonstration of how marine reserves can protect Oregon’s nearshore ecosystem and help to secure the future productivity of Oregon’s ocean.  A community team is continuing to work on a reserve nomination for Cape Arago (Charleston).

The recommendations came after 11 months of arduous work and evening meetings that sometimes ran long beyond their scheduled conclusions.  Emotions continue to run high on the issue and it would be wrong to say that the recommendations represent consensus. Alternative views and minority reports from the community teams have been documented.  Despite the relatively modest scale of the reserves (they must be of a certain size to be considered scientifically valid), they will limit where commercial and recreational fishing can take place.  Furthermore, it will be some time before their impact can be fully assessed.

Ecosystem-based management recognizes that we don’t know everything about how natural systems work, that systems are constantly evolving, and that uncontrollable variables – such as acidification from carbon dioxide and pollution from intense coastal development – also affect our ocean.  It requires adaptive management – changing course as new information and new knowledge become available.  If Oregon’s marine reserves turn out not to yield value – whether in revived fish stocks, biodiversity, or other benefits – then it would be reasonable to discontinue them.  However, we believe it more likely that the reserves will prove their worth, as documented in studies by The Nature Conservancy, PISCO and others.

Another important milestone was reached last August,  when the legislatively created Oregon Task Force on Nearshore Research, representing commercial and recreational fishermen, local, state, and federal agencies, scientists and conservation interests, completed its work. (See map of Oregon's Nearshore at right below.)  The task force recommends a handful of steps to assure that nearshore priorities, including marine reserves, will be coordinated and established based on sound data, independent science and local knowledge:

• Form a small work group representing State agencies, science, fishing, and conservation to develop a Nearshore Strategic Plan as a framework for decision making.
• Continue the already-established Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of Oregon marine scientists as a trusted source of independent scientific knowledge.
• Create the Oregon Ocean Science Trust, an independent nonprofit that can raise funds to support implementation of the Nearshore Strategic Plan.
• Ensure that citizens and communities are fully involved in nearshore planning and priority setting.
• Establish a coordinated nearshore data management system under the auspices of the Oregon Coastal Management Program.

These low-cost, common sense actions would provide a rational structure for ocean policy-making and resource development.  They also represent a powerful collaboration of diverse stakeholders who have worked through deep divisions to show us the way forward.

Note: Images courtesy Oregon Ocean Information and Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

 

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