Working Together for a Healthy Ocean Grantmakers of Oregon and SW Washington January 18, 2006

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Working Together for a Healthy
OceanGrantmakers of Oregon and SW
WashingtonJanuary 18, 2006
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Who, What, Why

• Who is Oregon Ocean
• Whats the Problem An Ocean in Crisis
• A 21st Century Opportunity Create an Ocean Ethic
• Protect Special Places Ecosystem Approach
• One Remedy Marine Protected Areas
• Our Legacy Extending Beach Bill to
• Marine Waters

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Our Ocean A Priceless Resource

• The oceans are our largest public resourcean
  area 23 larger than our nations
• land area
• Yet, less than 1 of our nations oceans, and
  none of Oregons ocean are protected

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Working Together

• WHO IS OREGON OCEAN?
• A statewide alliance of
• conservation organizations and science and
  communications partners

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A Statewide Alliance

• Formed in 2004, Launched in 2005
• 7 State and National Conservation Members
• 7 Advisory Council Partners
• Carolyn Waldron, Director
• Paul Engelmeyer, OPAC Liaison

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Conservation Members

• Audubon Society of Portland
• Conservation Leaders Network
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Oceana
• Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition
• Oregon State Public Interest Research Group
• Surfrider Foundation

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Advisory Council

• COMPASSCommunication Partnership for Science
• and the Sea
• PISCOPartnership for Interdisciplinary Studies
  on Coastal Oceans
• Green Fire Productions
• Resource Media
• The Nature Conservancy
• Coast Range Association
• Pacific Marine Conservation Council

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Partners

• The Lazar Foundation (Oregon)
• Meyer Memorial Trust (Oregon)
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation (Calif)
• The Bullitt Foundation (Washington)
• The Harder Foundation (Washington)

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Mission and Goals

• Mission Statement
• Oregon Ocean is a statewide alliance
• promoting the protection and restoration of
• marine life and habitat for a healthy ocean,
• thriving communities and our childrens future.

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Oceans in Crisis

• WHATS THE PROBLEM?
• Collapse of West Coast Groundfish Fishery
• -- largest fishery closure in US history
• Beach Closures
• Seabird Die-offs
• Sedementation/Water Pollution
• Dead Zones
• Loss of Biodiversity

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Why Care?

• HUMAN SERVICES
• Weather
• Water Quality
• Transportation
• Energy
• Food Aesthetic Value
• Medicines Play / Rejuvenation

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Why Care?

• MORAL IMPERATIVE
• Intrinsic Value of Marine Life and
• Ocean Resources
• - Wildlife Invertebrates/Anemones/Coral
  (starfish, barnacles, sponges, crabs),
• Fish, Pelagic Birds, Mammals (whales)

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Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves
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Oceans in Peril

• Once considered inexhaustible and resilient, we
  now know the ocean is finite and fragile
• Sweeping changes are needed in coastal,
• ocean protection

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National Call to Action

• Pew Oceans Commission (May 2003)
• Americas Living Oceans Charting a Course
• for Sea Change
• U.S. Commission on Oceans (July 2004)
• An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century
• Joint Ocean Commission (Oct. 2005)
• www.joint oceanscommission.org

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Be Bold

• Develop an Ocean Ethic in Oregon
• Marine parks and wildlife refuges
• Harness current regional, national, and
  international momentum driving urgent need for a
  new ocean policy ethos
• Extend Beach Bill legacy into ocean waters
• All 362 miles of ocean beaches are public access
  recreation areas

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Biodiversity Crisis

• Stemming the biodiversity crisis is
• credibly one of the most important
• social movements of our time.

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Create an Ocean Ethic

• OUR AMBITION
• Protect Special Places
• Conserve Significant Marine Habitat Areas
• - spawning grounds, nursery areas,
• biodiversity hotspots
• Just as we have done on the landscape by setting
• aside national / state parks and wildlife refuges

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• Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves

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Protect Marine Habitat

• Conserve and recover full range of native
  biological diversity in Oregons nearshore waters
  and coastal shore
• Habitat designation and other methods
• permanent protection of ecological values and
  representative habitat areas

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Protect Special Places

• Heceta Head to Heceta Banks, Astoria Canyon,
• Cape Blanco to Port Orford Reef
• Protect the Columbia River Gorge,
• Wallowa Mountains, Mt. Hood of
• Oregons Ocean

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Science-Policy

• Help identify significant marine habitat areas
  for conservation and protection
• Apply best available science and technologies to
  protect marine biodiversity
• (govt, NGO, academic collaboration)
• Establish creative policy solutions

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Ecosystem-based Management

• The cornerstone of a new vision for healthy,
  productive, resilient marine ecosystems
• Described by exerts as
• A comprehensive, integrated approach that
  considers the entire ecosystem, including
  humans.
• provide stable fisheries, abundant wildlife,
  clean beaches,
• vibrant coastal communities and healthy
  seafood.
• COMPASS, Scientific Consensus Statement on
  Marine Ecosystem-Based Management, March 21, 2005

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A Holistic Approach

• Ecosystem-based management
• Differs from current approaches that usually
  focus on a single-species , sector, activity or
  concern
• Instead, considers the cumulative impacts of
  different sectors

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Comprehensive Marine Management

• Specifically, EBM
• Acknowledges interconnectedness among systems,
  such as between air, land and sea and
• Integrates ecological, social, economic, and
  institutional perspectives, recognizing their
  strong interdependences

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Comprehensive and Ecosystem-based

• Adoption of a comprehensive strategy for
  sustaining Oregons coastal and ocean resources
• - Strategic action plan for instituting
  ecosystem- based management / Meyer Memorial
  Trust
• - Marine biodiversity conservation planning /
  OSU

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Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves
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The Challenge Hypertrophic Hubris

• Human behavior is centered in a
• discontinuity between peoples ability to act
  and our ability to understand the consequences of
  our actions

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Threats to Ocean Health

• Global Climate Change
• Overfishing
• Invasive Species
• Coastal Development Habitat Degradation
• Land Use Impacts Water Pollution

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Global Climate Change

• 2006 warmest year on record
• Past 9 years warmest of last 25
• Warmer ocean water
• Sea-level rise

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Overfishing

• Pew Oceans Commission (2003)
• Americas Living Oceans Charting a Course for
• Sea Change
• U.S. Commission on Oceans (2004)
• An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century
• United Nations
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)
• Worm, et al, Science (2006)

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Overfishing

• Race to Fish is driven by fishery mgmnt
  policies (overcapitalization, overharvesting,
  bycatch)
• Divide the spoils rather than conserve resource
• --ancient argument over freedom of the sea
• Hypertrophic perspective has crippled efforts
• to implement protective policies

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Restore the Bounty

• Protect the Habitat
• One Remedy Marine Reserves and
• Marine Protected Areas

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Our Ocean, Our Future

• Marine reserves
• places in the ocean that are completely and
  permanently protected from uses that remove
  animals and plants or alter their habitats.
  (PISCO)

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Marine Protected Areas

• Marine protected areas are tools that can be used
  to achieve specific management goals
• -marine wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries
• -marine parks and recreation areas
• -wildlife management areas
• -research-only areas

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Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves
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Marine Reserves

• Scientific data show that marine reserves have
  bigger fish and more fish and significantly
  greater species diversity
• Established marine reserves have yielded three
  essential results

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Recovering the Bounty

• 1. Increased abundance of life
• 3Xs as many plants and animals
• 2. Size of organisms significantly increased
• on average, fish and other animals and plants
  size increased by over 80 and

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Recovering the Bounty

• 3. Increased number of species
• 70 increase, on avg., in species diversity
• Spillover to adjacent waters animals move to
  other areas outside of reserves and positively
  impact fisheries and ecosystems

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An Oregonian Solution

• Create an economically viable and ecologically
  sustainable plan for Oregons ocean
• Local action to protect our ocean will bring
• local benefits

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A New Ocean Ethic

• Dry Tortugas Ecological Reserve, FL 2001
• - 150 square nautical miles
• Marine Life Protection Act 2006
• - 18 of Central CA protected
• NW Hawaiian Islands National Monument 2006
• - 140,000 square miles

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Oregons Ocean

• One thing that most people dont appreciate is
  the phenomenal diversity of species that we have
  off our shores in Oregon. This is one of the
  richest temperate marine ecosystems in the entire
  world. We just have a wealth of plants and
  animals.- Jane Lubchenco, distinguished
  professor of zoology, Oregon State University

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Photos courtesy of Ben Nieves
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Its the Habitat

• Restore and Protect the Habitat
• Protect Special Places
• Conserve Significant Habitat Areas

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An Ocean Ethic

• Establish Marine Protected Areas
• Marine Conservation Areas
• Marine Parks / Recreation Areas
• Wildlife Management Areas
• Sanctuary Preservation Areas
• Research-only Reserves

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Its the Habitat

•  All organisms need a place to live. Thats
  their habitat. So if the habitat goes, so does
  the organism. Its as simple as that. - Oregon
  State Universitys Mark Hixon, M.A.,
• in the documentary film, Common Ground Oregons
  Ocean

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Its the Habitat

• As Federal Ocean Commissioner
• William Ruckelshaus puts it,
• "A healthy ecosystem has healthy fish stocks."
•  

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• Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves

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Extending the Beach Bill to Marine Waters

• Visionary / Bold
• 1913 Governor West Public Coast Hwy
• 1967 Governor McCall Beach Bill
• 2001-2006 Marine Ecological Reserves
• 2006 West Coast Governors Agreement
• 2007? Oregons Ocean Our Legacy
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Photo courtesy of Ben Nieves
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Our Ocean, Our Future

• Its time to get smart about a
• healthy ocean.
• YES WE CAN !

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Working Together for a Healthy Ocean