Marine Management Research Articles

Impediments to achieving integrated marine management across borders: The case of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive

Several initiatives have been taken worldwide to promote international coordination and integrated approach in marine management. At the European level, ten years after the adoption of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the Member State strategies still present some ecological, economic and social challenges. This review identifies the minor, intermediate and major impediments (respectively defined as ‘bottlenecks, showstoppers and train-wrecks’) to marine management, resulting from a 4-year analysis of national, regional and European reports. Most of the problems are linked to the resistance of countries to collaborate and to the inability to integrate the work already carried out under other pieces of legislation. The European countries will need to better integrate and coordinate their actions in marine management in the second cycle of the MSFD, in order to achieve its final goal of Good Environmental Status as well as the objectives of other environmental policies.

Changes in local knowledge and its impacts on ecological resources management: The case of flyingfish culture of the Tao in Taiwan

The use of local ecological knowledge (LEK) has been advocated for coastal ecological and environmental resource management (EERM), noting that successful management on the resources has been implemented for centuries by many coastal societies based on their LEK. However, changes in LEK are observed in many instances worldwide and have caused impacts on the EERM. This study reports industry-, government- and culture-driven changes of a LEK and the impacts of the changes on the environment. Taking the Tao of Taiwan's Orchid Island as an example, the connotations and trend of their flyingfish culture are analyzed. Specifically, the five conditions for achieving effective EERM established by Dietz et al. (2003) are used as the theoretical basis to analyze the impact of LEK changes on environmental change. The findings indicated that this culture complies with the conditions proposed and proved that application of the flyingfish culture to the management of Orchid Island's marine and fishery resources has its theoretical basis and advantages. However, the flyingfish culture was found to be facing major changes which has violated the conditions for effective management of shared resources. Various external factors have contributed to the changes in the flyingfish culture. These include the impacts of inappropriate government policies, modern science and technology, education, and the market economy. Especially, inappropriate policies have reduced the integrity of the flyingfish cultural landscape, incentivized the use of motorized boats, commodified the flyingfish, and expanded the market for related products. Some suggestions for managing the changes to the culture are proposed.

Developing conceptual models that link multiple ecosystem services to ecological research to aid management and policy, the UK marine example

Our understanding of ecological processes that lead to ecosystem services is still evolving but ecological research aims to understand the linkages between the ecosystem and services. These linkages can affect trade-offs between different ecosystem services. Understanding these linkages, by considering multiple ecosystem services simultaneously supports management of the environment and sustainable use of resources. The UK marine environment is relatively data rich, yet the links between ecosystem and several ecosystem services and linkages between services are poorly described. A workshop with 35 marine scientists was used to create a conceptual model that links ecosystem components and key processes to four services they provide and to highlight trade-offs between them. The model was subsequently further developed to include pressures and mitigating management measures. The models are discussed in terms of their application to marine data to facilitate evidence-based marine management and their usefulness to communicate management measures with managers and stakeholders.

3500 years of shellfish mariculture on the Northwest Coast of North America.

Ancient systems of mariculture were foundations of social-ecological systems of many coastal Indigenous Peoples. However, since such systems either do not leave tangible remains in the archaeological record, and/or are hard to date, we know little about their development and use. Clam gardens, traditional mariculture features located within the intertidal zone along the Northwest Coast of North America, are composed of a rock wall positioned at the low tide mark and a flattened terrace on the landward side of the wall. Because these features are largely composed of rock and sediment, and have complex formation histories, they can be difficult to age. On northern Quadra Island, British Columbia, we identify three variations in clam garden form, constructed in different geomorphological settings, each of which require different sampling approaches to obtain ages on construction and ongoing use. To age the clam gardens, we consider radiocarbon dating of invertebrates that inhabit beach deposits (both pre- and post-garden construction), and the relationship of the gardens and clam samples to the local sea level history and taphonomic processes. Within our study area, we find clam gardens have been in use for 3500 years, likely corresponding to other social and ecological changes of the time. These data allow us to formulate guidelines on samples most suitable to constrain the age of initial and on-going wall construction and use of clam gardens, which can be extrapolated to dating other ancient mariculture features in other regions. Such dating programs are the foundation for understanding the long-term development of traditional marine management practices and how they are situated in broader social-ecological systems.

Barrel Jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo) as Source of Antioxidant Peptides.

The jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo, Macrì 1778 (Cnidaria, Rhizostomae) undergoes recurrent outbreaks in the Mediterranean coastal waters, with large biomass populations representing a nuisance or damage for marine and maritime activities. A preliminary overview of the antioxidant activity (AA) of R. pulmo proteinaceous compounds is provided here based on the extraction and characterization of both soluble and insoluble membrane-fractioned proteins, the latter digested by sequential enzymatic hydrolyses with pepsin and collagenases. All jellyfish proteins showed significant AA, with low molecular weight (MW) proteins correlated with greater antioxidant activity. In particular, collagenase-hydrolysed collagen resulted in peptides with MW lower than 3 kDa, ranging 3–10 kDa or 10–30 kDa, with AA inversely proportional to MW. No cytotoxic effect was detected on cultured human keratinocytes (HEKa) in a range of protein concentration 0.05–20 μg/mL for all tested protein fractions except for soluble proteins higher than 30 kDa, likely containing the jellyfish venom compounds. Furthermore, hydrolyzed jellyfish collagen peptides showed a significantly higher AA and provided a greater protective effect against oxidative stress in HEKa than the hydrolyzed collagen peptides from vertebrates. Due to a high reproductive potential, jellyfish may represent a potential socioeconomic opportunity as a source of natural bioactive compounds, with far-reaching beneficial implications. Eventually, improvements in processing technology will promote the use of untapped marine biomasses in nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical fields, turning marine management problems into a more positive perspective.

Comparison of social-value cognition based on different groups: The case of Pulau Payar in Malaysia and Gili Matra in Indonesia

The paper analyzes problems in Marine Park management and put forward suggestions for improvement based on differences of social value about Marine Park ecosystem services between Pulau Payar Marine Park (PPMP) in Malaysia and Gili Matra Marine Park (GMMP) in Indonesia. The purpose is to construct the connectivity of ecology, social economy, culture and system, and to study the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) from a broader perspective. The survey method used in this study is similar to that of ‘SolVES’ method, which aims to assess relative importance of social value for Marine Park and discuss people's attitudes towards the future development of Marine Park and management of Marine Park. We selected purposive sampling survey according to the occupation category, and obtained 109 and 102 valid questionnaires in PPMP and GMMP respectively. In this study, four sets of questions, including familiarity with Marine Park, attitude toward use of Marine Park, understanding of social-value of Marine Park and personal profile, were designed to analyze differences between PPMP in Malaysia and GMMP in Indonesia. For both Marine Parks Biological Diversity Value (B) was scored the highest among all ten social-values. The participation rate of marine education in both Marine Parks are relatively low; both of them are no more than 35%. Compared with locals, tourists value biodiversity more, and while comparison among different occupations, civil servants value biodiversity more than other occupations. Through on-the-spot investigation and sorting out the management problems of marine parks reflected by respondents, we found that: (a) the weakness of basic education and lack of popular science publicity and education activities have caused the level of public's awareness of environmental protection to be not high enough; (b) the relative insufficiency of tourism infrastructure and increase in number of tourists in recent years, might have caused many problems such as destroying coral reef resources and littering. Some suggestions were put forward to solve the problem: (a) promote public awareness of environmental protection through popular science publicity and education; (b) for PPMP, the restriction on the number of tourists will benefit the protection of coral, while improving infrastructure, such as garbage collection, will help improve environmental pollution; (c) for GMMP, strengthening the synergy between local and central governments will help to deal with the relationship between land use and environmental protection and highlight environmental protection functions.

The evaluation of marine biological value of the Jiangsu coastal zone (east of China) under the interference of human activities

Using the marine biological valuation method, we selected five ecosystem components, namely, phytoplankton, microzooplankton, macrozooplankton, macrobenthos, and nekton, to evaluate the marine biodiversity value of Jiangsu’s offshore areas in 2006 (early-term coastal development) and 2014 (mid-term coastal development), and the impact of human activities on the values were analyzed based on the differences between the two time periods. In general, the biological value (BV) of the Jiangsu offshore area changed in the context of high-intensity human activities, disrupting the original spatial pattern of the natural geographical attributes indicated by the BV in 2006. From the perspective of various ecosystem components, the impact on macrobenthos is long-lasting and significant, the impact on plankton is temporary and recoverable, and the presence of offshore structures leads to the formation of new habitats that attract new species and more predators (fishes), with the BV of nekton in the radial sand ridge area being higher than that in other marine areas. The results of our approach confirm the importance of areas that were previously identified for protection (particularly in the central regions). Our results also highlight the value of currently unprotected sites, mainly in the northern and southern regions. Highlighting the impact of high-intensity human activities on the BV of Jiangsu lays a foundation for developing future marine spatial plans and provides a scientific reference and basis for administrative departments to develop marine management decisions.

Eco-friendly polymers mortar for floor covering based on dredged sediments of the north of France

The onshore management of marine and river sediments represents economic, environmental, and societal issues; these materials are considered as wastes after dredging. In the framework of the SEDIPLAST regional project, dredged sediments, which are considered as non-inert waste according to European regulation, are recovered as mineral aggregates in thermosetting polymeric matrix to formulate polymer mortars in the field of floor coverings. The formulations are optimized using the Packing Density Model, to determine the optimum density of the mixtures, thus allowing having the high mechanicals characteristics of material. These formulations are evaluated by mechanical, thermal, and chemical tests according to the French classification of durability which characterizes the soil of a locality according to its use (UPEC). The results showed that the polymer mortars including dredged sediments have excellent physical, mechanical, and thermal properties, such as low voids content and excellent chemical resistance properties. Finally, SEM observations of different mixtures allowed to give an explanation of the results observed in macroscopic scale.

Identification of marine management priority areas using a GIS-based multi-criteria approach

There is a global issue of balancing resource exploitation with environmental protection. In particular, the marine environment is subject to many anthropogenic pressures which are most severe in coastal zones. Authorities managing these pressures have limited time and resources, so it is essential that they have access to data and modelling tools which help them prioritise their efforts.This study presents a spatial modelling approach which draws together a range of key criteria into a single framework to identify marine areas which should be prioritised for management and monitoring. The study area, Sussex coastal waters (southern UK), was assessed through quantification and modelling of relative environmental score and fishing pressure score. Environmental score was assessed by combining ecosystem services provision, habitat diversity and sensitivity, based on seabed habitat data. Fishing pressure was assessed by combining fishing benefits, impacts and effort for specific local fisheries. The marine priority assessment was compared to the location of Marine Protected Areas to understand the relationship with existing management measures.High and very high priority classes covered just 5% of the study area, with the highest priority area between Selsey and Bognor Regis. These habitats were ones found to have high environmental score (rocky reefs and seaweed-dominated sediment) concurrent with high fishing pressure. This modelling approach suggests that these areas should be the focus of further research, monitoring and potentially management measures. There was no significant difference between the priority score inside the MPAs and those outside, however, the environmental score was significantly higher inside MPAs. These findings suggest current MPAs are protecting valuable and/or sensitive habitats and management within these sites may have resulted in less fishing pressure.Each multi-criteria element of the study individually advances our understanding of the value of this marine environment and the importance of fisheries in Sussex coastal waters. Together, the multi-criteria approach strengthens the knowledge of processes and interactions, building a robust evidence base for management decision making. A framework has been developed which, with the use of different or additional datasets, could be applied to many scenarios supporting environmental managers worldwide.

Multidimensional assessment of supporting ecosystem services for marine spatial planning of the Adriatic Sea

The assessment and mapping of ecosystem services (ES) has become an increasingly important instrument for environmental management and conservation priority-setting. As such, this practice can be used in ecosystem-based Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). MSP is recognized as an opportunity to achieve socio-economic and ecological goals simultaneously, to suggest solutions for sustainable management of marine environment and its resources. In this study, we propose an operational approach that includes novel spatial analysis in the marine field to quantify and map supporting ecosystem services. Such approach spans the 3D-dimension of the marine environment, considering all marine domains (sea surface, water column, seabed) separately. Our approach is focused on mapping supporting ES of the Adriatic Sea, to grant their preservation in order to guarantee the delivery of all other ES. Supporting ES provision in the Adriatic was quantified through the use of indicators that denote ES delivery and that are specifically related to the three marine domains. We identified areas of elevated provisioning levels of multiple supporting ES in the Adriatic, which is hypothesized to be priority areas of conservation. Our results confirm the importance of explicitly including the pelagic domain in planning and conservation processes. Areas that provide the lowest levels of supporting ES delivery were also mapped, to indicate possible ‘sacrificial areas’ for industrial or intensive use. The spatial coincidence of the determined hotspots areas of ES delivery associated with particular marine areas that are and are not under conservation regimes was analysed. This approach led us to test the applicability of the method for identifying marine areas for conservation purposes. Our methodological approach aims at producing relevant scientific knowledge for prioritizing marine conservation and sustainable management actions, to be used in MSP and marine management.

Social and economic sustainability of multiple-use marine protected areas in Spain: A mixed methods, multi-scale study

Social perception is key to the success of biodiversity conservation policies. A range of socioeconomic guilds can be affected by marine conservation. Among them, fishers are the ones most likely affected and affecting marine protected areas (MPAs). Here, we assessed the perceptions on the sustainability of a type of multiple-use MPA, Fishing Reserves (FRs), by a broad spectrum of national (n = 16) and local (n = 14) stakeholder organisations pertaining to six socioeconomic sectors via two online surveys in Spain. We compared organisational perception by stakeholder organisations, and specifically by the fishing guild, with official fishing statistics for six FRs between 1998 and 2016 using a Before-After-Impact (BAI) research design. Spanish FRs were regarded as sustainable marine management tools by most marine and coastal stakeholders, with environmental effects perceived to be more positive than social and economic ones, respectively. However, primary sector organisations stated null or negative effect of FR designation on their activities, although official statistics showed a moderate to large increase in a number of professional fishing-related variables, including number of boats and crews, after designation of most FRs. Spatial scale did not affect stakeholder perception of local socioeconomic effects of FRs, although some relevant local socioeconomic variables that were thought to vary most after FR designation differed across scales. Some suggested managerial improvements for increased socioeconomic sustainability of Spanish FRs by the professional fishing guild included: greater stakeholder engagement in FR designation and operation, more flexible fishing regulations and stricter control of recreational fishing.

Evaluating tropical phytoplankton phenology metrics using contemporary tools

The timing of phytoplankton growth (phenology) in tropical oceans is a crucial factor influencing the survival rates of higher trophic levels, food web structure and the functioning of coral reef ecosystems. Phytoplankton phenology is thus categorised as an ‘ecosystem indicator’, which can be utilised to assess ecosystem health in response to environmental and climatic perturbations. Ocean-colour remote sensing is currently the only technique providing global, long-term, synoptic estimates of phenology. However, due to limited available in situ datasets, studies dedicated to the validation of satellite-derived phenology metrics are sparse. The recent development of autonomous oceanographic observation platforms provides an opportunity to bridge this gap. Here, we use satellite-derived surface chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) observations, in conjunction with a Biogeochemical-Argo dataset, to assess the capability of remote sensing to estimate phytoplankton phenology metrics in the northern Red Sea – a typical tropical marine ecosystem. We find that phenology metrics derived from both contemporary platforms match with a high degree of precision (within the same 5-day period). The remotely-sensed surface signatures reflect the overall water column dynamics and successfully capture Chl-a variability related to convective mixing. Our findings offer important insights into the capability of remote sensing for monitoring food availability in tropical marine ecosystems, and support the use of satellite-derived phenology as an ecosystem indicator for marine management strategies in regions with limited data availability.

The Development of Hainan Provincial Digital Ocean Environment Parameters Three-dimensional Visualization System

Hainan Province has the largest ocean areas in China. After decades of efforts, it has accumulated abundant marine basic data, and has built various types, different topics and large-scale marine databases. The construction of Hainan provincial digital ocean environment parameters 3D visualization system can effectively integrate, utilize and share these marine information resources, and support marine management and marine ecological environment protection. The multi-dimensional dynamic visualization of information can provide scientific and effective tools for comprehensive marine management and macro-decision-making in a timely and accurate manner.This paper introduces a digital ocean environment parameters three-dimensional (3D) visualization system based on digital earth sphere model suitable for marine environment parameters three-dimensional visualization display, studies the key technologies of multi-dimensional marine environment parameters visualization based on basic geographic data and remote sensing images, which integrated high-precision Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and satellite images to realize the three-dimensional integration and visualization of marine environmental parameters in the South China Sea, providing data display, multi-temporal dimension comparison and spatial overlay analysis. The functions of statistics and data management provide interactive information services for integrated marine management and decision-making support.

GNSS RTK Application to Determine Coastline Case Study at Northen Area of Sulawesi and Gorontalo

Article 12 of Indonesia Government Regulation No.4-year 2011 about Geospatial Information [5], coastline is an element of base map. Article 13 subsection 1 states that the boundary form between the land and the ocean were affected by the tides. In subsection 2, coastline is divided into three types, namely lowest, highest, and mean sea level tides. Studies about coastline is important to support many maritime activities such as to determine administrative area (such as province, etc.), determine the length of coastline, coastal and marine management, also inland and marine spatial planning. Due to the importance of coastline, data with good accuracy is needed. Coastline mapping technology has developed rapidly. Previous method of coastline mapping is to trace marine debris carried by wave to the coast. At present time, because of needs of coastline data with higher accuracy and in the bigger scales, the GNSS RTK technology is starting to be used. GNSS technology generated coordinates and elevation and use tides values as reference datum. After the above, Digital Elevation Model generated from those points are combined with bathymetry and land elevation data resulting three types of coastline in accordance with the Indonesia Government Regulation about Geospatial Information Article 13 Subsection 2.

Integrating knowledge among fishermen and scientists for better marine conservation and management: A running example in Southern Portugal (Algarve)

Integrating knowledge among fishermen and scientists for better marine conservation and management: A running example in Southern Portugal (Algarve)

Legitimacy Has Risks and Benefits for Effective International Marine Management

Legitimacy Has Risks and Benefits for Effective International Marine Management

Geovisualization tools to inform the management of vessel noise in support of species' conservation

The growth of global ocean noise recorded over the past decades is increasingly affecting marine species and requires assessment on the part of marine managers. We present a framework for the analysis of species' exposure to noise from shipping. Integrated into a set of geovisualization tools, our approach focuses on exposure hotspot mapping, on the computation of probabilistic levels of exposure, and on the identification of shipping routes that minimize exposure levels for Cetacean species. The framework was applied to estimate noise exposure for the Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population, and for the exploration of possible ship traffic displacement scenarios in the Salish Sea, British Columbia. Four noise exposure hotspots were identified within the SRKW's core habitat. Exposure over these areas was mainly produced by six vessel classes, namely Ferries, Tugboats, Recreational Vessels, Vehicle Carriers, Containers, and Bulkers. Exposure levels showed variability across hotspots suggesting that a fine-scale spatial dimension should be included in the design of noise pollution mitigation strategies for the Salish Sea. The scenarios suggest that small changes in the current shipping lanes (3.4% increase in traveled distance) can lead to a 56% reduction of the overlap between vessel traffic and sensitive areas for SRKW.

Composition and structure of the ichthyofauna in a marine protected area in the western equatorial Atlantic: A baseline to support conservation management

In reef environments, fish assemblages are characterized by great species diversity in a vast spectrum of niches. In addition, many species constitute important resources for fisheries and tourism activities, with some included in lists of endangered species. In this socio-ecological context, data from fish assemblages has frequently subsidized the creation and/or management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). With the purpose of providing a baseline assessment of reef fish to subsidize the management of Pedra da Risca do Meio Marine State Park (whose acronym in Portuguese is PEMPRM), we describe the composition and assemblages structure of the fishes in this MPA. To inventory the species, we conducted 112 SCUBA dives with the intensive search method at eight sites inside the PEMPRM during six years of sampling. In parallel, to assess the structure of the assemblages, we conducted 63 stationary visual censuses distributed among three of these sites during one year of sampling. In total, 131 taxa belonging to 54 families were identified representing approximately half of the regional diversity. Thirteen of these species (10%) are included in categories with some level of threat IUCN or Brazilian red list categories and six are considered endemic to the Brazilian Biogeographic Province. The assemblages of the three studied sites varied in species richness, number of endangered species, and trophic structure. These results were corroborated by multivariate analyses (PERMANOVA) that indicated significant differences among the assemblages of the three sites. Our results point to a spatial zoning approach for the management of PEMPRM.

Community surveillance: how to incorporate customary community in monitoring marine area (study case Panglima Laot in Aceh)

Protecting and managing marine area of Indonesia is a daunting task for government agencies due to the huge and complex area to monitor with limited personnel, tool and fund. In addition, Illegal Unregulated Unreported (IUU) fishing activities become serious threat to environment, economy and sovereignty of Indonesia; therefore, incorporating fisheries community in protecting and managing marine area seems like viable solution for Indonesia government, especially to monitor the huge area. It will add more “eyes and ears” to watch violation in the sea. Customary fisheries community, such as Panglima Laot, is particularly useful to cooperate because it has more control over most fishermen in the area; moreover, most fisheries community already has custom and tradition to protect marine environment. However, incorporating the fisheries community in government system certainly requires some observation to make it work. Firstly, it has to be aligned with Indonesian law and regulations. Secondly, it needs designated authority agency to report on. Thirdly, Fisheries community in Aceh has regulation based on custom and tradition, called Hukom Adat Laot; therefore, it is important to determine where and which activities that will be punished by customary law and by government law. Lastly, some training is required to ensure the community understands the procedure in monitoring and reporting IUU fishing in their area and some communication devices may be necessary to facilitate information from community to authority. Consequently, these require some fund for training and devices provisioning butincorporating community in marine management will give better understanding to community about sustainable utilization which will give more benefits in long run.

Analysis of social and economic aspects of management of marine and coastal resources based on EAFM (Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management) method in Banda Aceh City

The study was conducted from January to February 2018 located in Lampulo sub-district of Kuta Alam Banda Aceh, Kampung Jawa, Aceh Province. The method of data retrieval was taken from primary data (interview and questionnaire) and secondary data (from related institution and references). The sampling used was purposive sampling method with 15 respondents. Data analysis used was ordinal-based on liker score 1, 2, 3 to each indicator such as; economic domain, fishery household income (RTP), saving ratio and asset ownership, and social domain which is stakeholder participation, fishery conflict and local knowledge in management of fish resources. The overall average indicator scores are 2. The management of coastal and marine resources ecosystems in Banda Aceh city conducted precisely in Kampung Jawa, Lampulo village. The result showed that economic domain is classified with the acquisition of composite value 53.33, and social domain is classified very well with the composite value of 88.88.