Linking Habitat Protection and Marine Protected Area Programs to Conserve Coral Reefs and Associated Back Reef Habitats

A variety of mechanisms exist at the state, territorial, and federal level in the U.S. to protect habitats critical in the development of reef fi sh species. The most recently formulated are the Essential Fish Habitat designations in federal waters, in addition to various National Environmental Policy Act-associated and state-level permitting processes, as well as provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act and National Marine Sanctuaries Act. Similarly, several mechanisms are available to implement marine protected areas, including existing federal National Marine Sanctuary processes and varied Fishery Management Council initiatives under development. Linking habitat management and MPA implementation is critical to developing whole-ecosystem protection to threatened habitats and populations. Spatially explicit science remains key to coordinating such efforts as diverse stressors occur across the shelf from landand water-based sources. However, fragmentation of jurisdictional authority signifi cantly impacts the ability to institute effective protection. Solutions to this must include: (1) Filling critical personnel shortages at the fi eld staff level, (2) development of integrated regulations for agencies with jurisdiction over marine fi sheries, water quality and coastal development, and (3) dedicated money for monitoring and enforcement efforts as a prerequisite to implementation of management regimes. This publication is part of a series of papers resulting from a scientifi c workshop held at the Caribbean Marine Research Center (December 2001) to evaluate the importance of back reef systems for supporting biodiversity and productivity of marine ecosystems. Coral reefs can be considered “charismatic macrofauna” of the marine realm, along with marine mammals and sea turtles often known as charismatic megafauna. There is a high level of public awareness regarding coral reefs and the environmental impacts to which they are susceptible. However, most of the popular media has focused public attention on forereef-associated habitats. Many back reef habitat types – seagrasses, sandy bottoms, hard bottoms, patch reefs, mangroves, channels – do not receive the same level of consideration, although the threats to these areas are also pressing. Back reef habitats provide many important ecosystem functions: serving as sources of primary production, forage areas, critical juvenile nursery habitats, as well as larval settlement areas (Boesch and Turner, 1984; Thayer et al., 1987; Keener et al., 1988; Nelsen et al., 1991; Able and Fahay, 1998). These habitats and their functions are threatened by a suite of stressors that are cross-shelf in nature and include: direct loss from coastal development, non-point source pollution (e.g., increased stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces), alteration of habitat and hydrology from channel dredging, prop scarring in shallow waters, damage from bottom-tending fi shing gears (Fonseca et al., 1984; Van Dolah et al., 1987), as well as increased turbidity from all of the above activities. Moreover, the effects of many of these stressors are cumulative in nature and diffi cult to measure on a case-by-case basis. Back reef systems themselves are also cross-shelf in nature, and are a fundamental component of a continuum between inshore and outer shelf regions. The utilization patterns of many reef fi sh species refl ect the use of multiple habitats that are distributed adjacent to each other (Parrish, 1989; Parker and Mays, 1998). BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 75, NO. 2, 2004 322 We examine the potential for linking administrative mechanisms and available scientifi c information to protect back reef habitats with recent efforts to establish marine protected areas. Both habitat management and protected area design can be aided by similar data, e.g., identifi cation of common developmental and habitat utilization patterns for key species groups (Lindeman et al., 2000). In addition, we attempt to address obstacles to integrated management actions, such as fragmentation of jurisdictional authority, by providing a state-level example of a coordinated, ecosystem approach to protection of marine resources.