Marine Policy

Sustainability and Yield in Marine Reserve Policy

In the process of implementing marine reserves, policy makers typically are occupied with (1) choosing the spatial configuration of areas to protect and (2) addressing the concerns of fishermen regarding the effects of proposed reserves on fishery yield. The spatial configuration is typically set by choosing the habitat, species, and ecosystems to protect, assuming that the associated species w...

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary: Advancing the Science and Policy of Marine Protected Areas

A network of marine protected areas was established in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in April 2003. Geospatial modeling tools were used to advance the science and policy underlying the network design. Scientists used a modeling tool, SPEXAN, to develop and evaluate design options. This modeling tool was used to process a large amount of spatially explicit data and to produce a s...

Is Marine Conservation Science Becoming Irrelevant to Policy Makers?

The use of science in policy-making has declined dramatically around the world. One of the most obvious examples of scientific neglect is the refusal of many U.S. politicians to accept anthropogenic climate change despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. While over 97% of scientists recognize the global threat posed by human climate forcing (Oreskes, 2004a; Doran and Zimmerman,...

Marine disease impacts, diagnosis, forecasting, management and policy.

Managing Marine Plastic Pollution: Policy Initiatives to Address Wayward Waste