Improving Interactions Between Coastal Science and Policy Proceedings of the Gulf of Maine Symposium (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Protecting Regional Significant Terrestrial and Marine Habitats
Protecting Regional Significant Terrestrial and Marine Habitats
Pages 117-182
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Protecting Regionally Significant Terrestrial and Marine Habitats
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A number of factors impede science-policy interactions with relation to regionally significant habitats. These factors include outdated legal and institutional structures, professional specialization, information inadequacies, and a lack of mechanisms for the resolution of conflicts.
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, we must therefore recognize that some marine habitats in the region are under threat; that such threats will likely increase in the future; and that steps must be taken to protect significant habitats.
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Monitoring may allow identification of sensitive or significant habitats that might be impacted, but only when scientific research on the expected effects of the activity has already been done. Predevelopment monitoring can also provide the baseline data with which post-development data can be compared in order to determine if significant impacts have occurred.
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Under this Act, "fish habitats" are defined as those parts of the environment "on which fish depend, directly or indirectly, in order to carry out their life processes." Because the Act broadly defines "fish" to include all the life stages of "fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and marine animals," the provisions for the protection of "fish habitat" under this Act can be considered to cover habitat requirements of most aquatic life. Administration of the Fisheries Act rests predominantly with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)
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Multiuse habitat issues in the Fundy Isles region, Bay of Funcly, New Brunswick These are two quite different cases in the first instance, we are dealing with an "essential habitat" (Langton et al., in press) for a single species.
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Case Study I: Trinity Ledge Herring Spawning Grounds Background and Context Fisheries management in Canada is the mandate of DFO. There is a well established framework for the integration of science and policy in this aspect of resource management.
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area around the Ledge for three days per week during the period August 15 September 15 (larger box in Figure 2) , but Trinity Ledge remained the single most important fishing area in the Bay of Fundy, representing 28 percent of the total summer purse seine catch (Stephenson et al., 1988~.
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by the overall approach to management. This case study points out the need for recognition of essential habitats in the life history of a species.
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Croix River east to Point Lepreau, including Grand Manan, Campobello, and Deer Islands. The Fundy Isles region is considered to be one of the most ecologically diverse marine areas in Atlantic Canada.
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Aquaculture 129 Salmon cage aquaculture has been successful in this region because of a combination of factors, including the abundance of sheltered sites among the islands; the tidal currents, which serve to disperse wastes and also help to maintain water temperatures generally within acceptable levels for salmon; and generally good water quality. The Fundy Isles region salmon aquaculture industry began in the late 1970s; by 1993, production was more than 10,000 tonnes (Figure 7)
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Energy Production Currently, the only energy production in the region is at the Point Lepreau nuclear power generating station, located at the eastern extremity of the region. Because of the high tidal currents and unique geography of the region, there have been proposals for tidal power generation in the Fundy Isles region.
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Research has also been conducted on possible conflicts between traditional fisheries and aquaculture. A study conducted off Grand Manan provides some evidence for a change in lobster distributions related to the operation of a salmon aquaculture farm (Lawson and Robichaud, 19921.
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In the Trinity Ledge case, the single species type of management, focussing on an essential habitat, is appropriate. In the Fundy Isles case, multiuse management using a broad definition of habitat is required.
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Collaborations such as these have the added advantage of bringing most of the various stakeholders into the management process. Involving more people can, of course, also add some complications to the clecision-making process, since obtaining a consensus often becomes more difficult.
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In addition, realignment of all marine habitat issues within one federal Department is anticipated in the near future. The larger problem, however, lies in achieving the cooperation of all of the stakeholders in the recognition and protection of significant marine habitats.
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1994. Location, extent and importance of marine habitats in the Gulf of Maine.
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Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Scientific Advisory Committee Research Documents 90/50. Stephenson, R.L., M.J.
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Gulf of Maine State of the Environment Fact Sheet 94-~. Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, Boston, Mass.
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138 IMPROVING INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COASTAL SCIENCE AND POLICY ~_ REGIONAL I DIRECTOR I l GENERAL I '- ' Fisheries ~ Habitat Science ~Management 1 Biological Sciences Branch Physical Chemical Sciences Branch ' Can~ian Hydrograpllic Service J it, Marine Assessment & Liaison Resource Management Branch , Habitat Management Branch Conservation & Protection Branch Informal linkage to Atlantic Geoscience Cenbe, Universities Figure ~Linkages between science ant! management sectors within the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Scotia-Fundy Region until 1994 (from Ducharme 19921.
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PROTECTING REGIONAILY SIGNIFICANT HABITATS 139 it) 10' 44o 50' 40' A at/ _ ~ ' I NOVASCOTIA Trinity Ledge S _ ~ -J \_ I Yarmouth 5~_ ~ 1 1 ~1 1 30' 20' 10' 66° 50' Figure 2 Map of Trinity Ledge, southwestern Nova Scotia, showing small closure box (approx.
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(Sal) (64 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 Year Figure 3 Trinity Ledge summer purse seine landings (figures indicate percent of total 4X summer purse seine fishery)
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/ _d,~\ a, ,/~ ,/ :/ ~ :/] 1 ' 1 Or Point Lepreau Q ~ BAY OF FUNDY 6 ~0 10 ' ' ., kilometers 67°W Figure 4 Map of Fundy Isles region.
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it.... ~ Other + Shellfish Pelagic estuarial _+ Groundfish 85 87 89 91 93 Year Figure 5 Traditional fisheries landings in the Fundy Isles region 1977-1993.
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\ :: 5 ~ ~ ~ ~ 77 79 81 83 \ / / it_ \ \ .~ ..... 85 87 89 91 93 Year + Other · Shellfish Pelagic & estuarial Groundfish Figure 6 Value of traditional fisheries landings in the Fundy isles region, 1977-1993.
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,~' / \ -80 60 I \ ~40 100 .~ 'A ~ 0 u, -20 O - ~ -- , , , , , , , , , ~ I I T T ~ T T V 77 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 Year 1 1 1 1 1 1 Figure 7 Salmon aquaculture production in the Fundy Isles region, 1979-1993 (with harvest fisheries landings for comparison)
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. (Statistics from Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and New Brunswick Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture)
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`~ ~ ~ ~ ~.~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~:~ ~:~ ~ Aim: . ~ ~ +` \~,,~,~,~.~,',~ ~ O ~ +~ Bay of Fundy + Aquaculture sites in1994 0 10 kilometres 67°W Figure 9 Salmon aquaculture sites in the Fundy Isles region in 1994.
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These important questions require effective interactions among existing information, research scientists, and management policymakers. Here ~ propose an interactive framework designed to steer research in a productive and efficient direction to improve the way we understand and manage regionally significant habitats.
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Certainly, to some degree, all habitats used by an organism are important, but it is also quite possible that not all need to be managed. Arguably, regionally significant habitats include those of socioeconomic importance.
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. Essential Habitats Some organisms require a specific habitat at a critical phase in their life.
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Eye to the Future By focussing on the essential habitats for critical phases of important species, the minimum sufficient area needed for their protection can be determined. The science of con sedation biology has developed the necessary tools to determine the minimum viable population size necessary to conserve a species (Soule, 19901.
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Part I: Benthic Habitats. Maine Natural Areas Program, Department of Economic and Community Development.
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: A demographic bottleneck? Marine Ecology Progress Series 69:231-243.
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. Risk or Vuhnerabilitr of Essential Habitats Fig.
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IS Can Real exact of essential habitat(s) be estimated?
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Most other fishing societies use different kinds of management methods, which may suggest a solution to our management problems. Quotas, Individual Transferable Quotas, and the Precepts of Scientific Management In modern industrial countries, most fisheries are managed by establishing quotas for single species over the entire range of that species.
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Fisheries Management in Other Societies Many traditional societies make no discernable attempts to manage marine fish stocks. Those that do, however, use very different techniques from those employed by "scientific" management.
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First, the total biomass of the community of fish is relatively stable, but the biomass of individual species varies unpredictably. Second, there is no observed relationships between the size of the spawning stock and recruitment.
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Even if we cannot control the amount of fish to be produced in the future, we can preserve the habitat and biological functions (e.g., spawning grounds, juvenile habitat, migration routes, water quality) and maintain the spawning stock to keep populations within cer ain limits.
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The information problem is reduced further by managing small areas of ocean. This situation calls for a very different approach to management than the one currently in vogue-namely management oriented toward preserving those aspects of the environment necessary to preserve regular biological processes (i.e., spawning, migration, food supply, water quality, etc.)
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160 IMPROVING IN7ERACrlONS BETWEEN COASTAL SCIENCE AND POLICY Wilson, J.A.
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For the offshore fisheries of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, where primary productivity and other biological indicators remain healthy,
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, the best that can be said about policy development regarding regionally significant fish habitat in federal waters is probably that there is none. To be sure, we are not arguing that there is no policy, since the decision not to be concerned in practice with the role that essential habitat plays in the population dynamics of cod or halibut stocks is a rather primitive form of policy.
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Physical changes to estuaries and rivers, whether these are dams or highway embankments, represent losses of regionally significant habitats that may be at least as profound with respect to fish stocks in the Gulf as the benthic habitat changes we are about to ~iSCUSS.7 impacts of Mobile Fishing Gear We have witnessed a revolution in fishing technology in the region in the past twenty years. This revolution has occurred not only in electronic fish finding and navigational technologies; it is also evident in the fishing boats and harvesting gear itself.
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3. A hump of mud and pipe clay (see below)
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~. So much for the so-called "precautionary principle." See references included in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement developed for Amendment Five to the New England Multispecies Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (March 18, 19931.
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Science, Policy, and the Practice of Protecting Regionally Significant Fisheries Habitat Perhaps the reason that regionally significant habitats in federal waters are not identified, studied, protected, and restored in the Gulf of Maine is relatively simple: it is no one's job to do so. The only federal law that addresses management and development of the living resources in federal waters essentially denies the managers the authority to directly address the question and, as a consequence, removes their accountability for doing so.
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PROTECTING REGIONALLY SIGNIFICANT HABITATS 167 structure might be playing in crop productivity. Without such a strategic vision and a holistic approach to the ecosystem-basis of our problems, the efficacy of our science and policy will remain crippled and inadequate.
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, lames List (Welis National Estuarine Research Resented, Andrea Maker (Champion International Corporation) , losie Quintrell (Maine State Planning Office)
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The protection of regionally significant habitats involves the issue of governance. The process by which protection is now attempted has numerous inadequacies related to governances including the fragmentation of institutional jurisdiction, disenfranchisement of ~ - - ~ - ~ ~ ~ , ~ .
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Information about the appropriate scale of protection Policymakers are faced with the task of implementing management measures that will protect regionally significant habitats. However, to determine the appropriate scale (e.g., local or far-reaching, immediate or deferred, short-term or long-term)
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Essential habitat is the type of environment that is necessary for the survival or stability of a species. Once knowledge of the extent of these essential habitats is acquired, appropriate management decisions can be made regarding conservation or permissible alteration of the habitat.
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Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, completed a list of priority species for the Gulf of Maine (U.S.
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This would include groups as diverse as environmental associations, mineral companies, tourists, cottage owners, manufacturing firms, scientists, managers, legislators, and government agencies. Data should be collected on the attitudes, goals, ambitions, and plans of stakeholders related to the habitat, as well as on perceived problems and solutions involving these significant habitats.
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Given the breadth of the community of interest, the multiple governance jurisdictions, the institutional complexity, and the progress that must be achieved to develop a common working vision for the marine region, the task of developing a comprehensive plan is daunting. ~_' ~ Impediments to the Science and Policy Interactions A number of factors impede science-policy interactions with relation to regionally significant habitats.
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Habitat protection should result from these efforts. ., ~ there do not appear to be any cases of science-policy interactions designed specifically to protect regionally significant habitats, where the significance of the habitats has been determined through broad discussion among all stakeholders.
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The New Hampshire Audubon Society is now conducting workshops to train citizen groups in each town to use the manual to inventory and evaluate their coastal wetland resources. This information will be used to reduce the impact of local and state development decisions on coastal wetland resources and to prepare for the movement of beaches that is predicted to occur if sea level continues to rise.
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Over the longer term, the Wells NERR is developing research-based educational materials to help coastal Gulf of Maine communities prepare for the movement of beaches that is predicted if sea level continues to rise. Improving Interactions Between Science and Policy on Regionally Significant Habitats Room for improvement exists in several key areas of science-policy interaction.
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Conclusions: Improving Science and Policy Interactions Two days of discussions of regionally significant habitats in the Gulf of Maine identified the six issues listed below. Issue I: A wide variation in value systems make it difficult to assign priorities to various habitat types.
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The North American Wildlife Management Program is one possible model. The species prioritization initiative currently being pursued by USFWS, in partnership with the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, represents a common approach toward identifying regionally significant habitats and should be continued and supported by U.S.
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Conclusions: The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment should develop a strategy that would lead to clear national policies related to the management of the Gulf of Maine and its contiguous coastal zone, that are consistent between the United States and Canada. Ways should be sought to involve federal agencies more formally, while maintaining the spirit of equal partnership that Gulf of Maine policymaking now enjoys.
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Project, and Gulf of Maine Council on the Manne Environment.
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