![]() There are a myriad of marine managed area designations in Oregon and Washington and associated federal waters. These areas have been established through a regulatory framework and are distinct from the different site selection output scenarios, or potential priority conservation areas, illustrated in this case study. We purposefully did not include current marine managed areas in this analysis, but will use them to compare biomass returns from EwE within our site selection scenarios. We briefly describe below, however, the current status of protection in Oregon and Washington State waters. For a more thorough treatment see Nowlis 2004. Oregon In the broadest sense there are many different types of marine protected areas including coastal National Wildlife Refuges, coastal State Parks, publicly owned beaches and submerged lands, and the South Slough National Esuarine Research Reserve. While all of these designations and land ownerships may contribute to conservation, most areas with potential to protect marine life in Oregon stop at the tide line and do not include subtidal habitats. Most are open to some form of commercial or recreational fishing. Besides Whale Cove Intertidal Research Reserve, which prohibits the talking of marine fish, shellfish, and invertebrates, Oregon does not have any marine reserves. Considering Whale Cove as the only Marine Managed Area that affords any protection, this makes up 0.004 percent of state waters. Washington Most of the MMAs in Washington exist in Puget Sound, making the state a national leader in establishing marine resource reserves, though they still encompass less than 0.02 percent of state waters. The outer Washington coast does have tribal reservation lands that includes marine jurisdiction, the Olympic National Marine Sanctuary and National Park that includes part of the coastal zone, as well as many offshore rock reserves considered part of the National Wildlife Refuge system. These areas, however, do not offer protection to tidal and subtidal habitats and are generally considered principally land-based. The Sanctuary, although quite large (>824,000 hectares) and contains many of our conservation and fisheries targets, also does not offer adequate protection of those resources. Not until the Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) process did the outer coasts of Oregon and Washington get recognized as essential habitat for the protection of managed groundfish species from bottom trawling. At that there are no designated EFH conservation areas within state waters. |
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