Planning protected area networks for surfing resources

Abstract

Surf breaks are vital cultural resources on coastlines worldwide, but are vulnerable to myriad threats, including climate change and coastal development; as such, efforts to protect them have proliferated. Hitherto, spatial protections (e.g., marine protected areas; MPAs) have been pursued for surf breaks as single, individual reserves. This situation is comparable to the early days of biodiversity MPAs, which eventually progressed to networked reserve design, initially culminating in California’s 124 net- worked MPAs. Here, we apply the analogy of networked biodiversity reserve design to networked reserves for surf break protection. We examine the proposition that the effectiveness of surfing resource conservation can be improved by a “networked” approach. We conclude that specific characteristics of surf breaks, including their size, type, carrying capacity, quality, value, accessibility, spacing, vulnerability, and cultural and historic significance could all be considered and balanced to yield more effective, equitable conservation outcomes.