RL32154
Marine Protected Areas: An Overview
February 11, 2005
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Summary
Some Members of Congress are among the many people who are interested considering limiting human activity in some areas of the marine environment as one response to mounting evidence of deteriorating conditions and declining populations of living resources. The purposes of proposed additional limits would be to both stem the decline and permit the rehabilitation of these environments and populations. One method of implementing this concept is to designate areas where activity would be limited, often referred to as marine protected areas (MPAs). Translating the MPA approach into a national program, however, would require many economic, ecological, and social factors to be considered. The complexity of creating a program is compounded by controversy over the uses that would be allowed, curtailed, or prohibited in MPAs; the purposes of a system of MPAs; and the location, size and distribution of MPA units. These controversies continue to be debated. Various terms have been used to describe MPAs and related areas, adding confusion to discussions of this topic. These terms include marine reserve, ocean wilderness, marine sanctuary, marine managed area, and marine park. One might think of MPA designations as a form of zoning in the ocean. Experiences in using the MPA designation in other countries may be instructive. However, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of administration and enforcement and about changes in living resources at some of these sites. Even though the MPA designation has not been used widely in the United States, numerous marine sites have been designated by federal and state governments for some kind of protection. Perhaps the best-known federal sites are units in the National Marine Sanctuary Program. The Bush Administration has continued most of the Clinton Administration initiatives to reduce or eliminate damage from some human activities on some marine resources and to coordinate protection of these resources at designated sites. Executive Order 13158, issued in May 2000, endorsed establishing and strengthening a comprehensive system of MPAs. Additional actions by Congress would be needed to create a system that could be characterized as integrated or comprehensive. Congressional interest may be stimulated because recent reports from the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy endorsed the MPA concept. Some of the issues that are likely to be raised in any congressional discussions include whether new legislation is desired or needed; what the basic characteristics of units in any system of MPAs should be; how MPAs might be used to resolve use conflicts; and whether adequate funding would be authorized and appropriated to both enforce the protected status and monitor and evaluate the ecological and social impacts of MPA designations. Earlier congresses examined the concepts behind MPAs and experiences with protected areas as they considered appropriations and proposals to reauthorize coastal and marine resource protection laws. However, they did not authorize new MPA-related activities. The 109th Congress is likely to continue considering these topics. This report will be updated as events warrant.
