NOAA's
National Marine Sanctuary Program serves as the trustee for a system
of marine protected areas, and works to conserve, protect, and enhance their biodiversity,
ecological integrity, and cultural legacy. Managing this range of goals requires
an approach that integrates an understanding of the interrelated patterns of human
use, ecology, and geography.
CCEHBR’s Coastal Ecology Program has conducted research at several National
Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) in efforts to support relevant science and management needs.
Work at the Gray’s Reef NMS, off
the coast of Georgia, has included a number of studies aimed at characterizing living
resources (benthos and fish) within the sanctuary and surrounding shelf waters,
assessing the status of ecological condition and stressor impacts, and conducting
long-term monitoring of potential changes due to natural or human causes. Examples
of recent products include Greene (2008), Kracker (2007), Balthis et al. (2007), Hyland et al. (2006),
Rexing 2006, and Cooksey et al. 2004. Similar work is being conducted at Stellwagen
Bank NMS, off the coast of MA, with an assessment of the status of ecological condition
and stressor impacts initiated in summer 2008.
CCEHBR’s Coastal Ecology Program also is working with the Olympic Coast
NMS to conduct studies of deep-sea coral and sponge assemblages and their vulnerability
to potential human impacts. Among the outcomes are multiple new records of coral
species for the region (e.g., the stony coral Lophelia pertusa); evidence
of these resources serving as habitat for other commercially valuable fishes and
invertebrates; and signs of human influences (e.g., trawl marks in sediment, dead
coral entangled in lost gear). Results have played an important role in marine spatial
planning actions for the region, including the creation of the Olympic 2 Groundfish
Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) Conservation Area in June 2006. Examples of recent
products include Brancato et al. (2007), Intelmann et al.
(2007), and Hyland et al. 2005.
CCEHBR scientists also participated recently with other federal and state
partners, including ONMS, in a first-ever comprehensive assessment of the status
of ecological condition of coastal-ocean waters along the majority of the U.S. western
continental shelf. Samples of biological condition (benthos and fish), water and
sediment quality, and levels of chemical contaminants and other stressors were collected
at 257 stations from Cape Flattery, WA to the Mexican border at near-shore to outer-shelf
depths of about 30-120 meters. The survey included stations in all five west-coast
NMSs (Olympic Coast, Cordell Banks, Gulf of Farallones, Monterey Bay, Channel Islands)
thus providing a basis for assessing condition in these protected areas relative
to non-sanctuary areas of the self. See Nelson et al.
(2008) for a PDF copy of the final
report.