Ship to Shore: Linking Science to Policy

Loving the Coast to Death

It is no secret that Southern Californians love the ocean, their world-renowned beaches, and the plants and animals that live above and beneath the waves. Millions of Californians and visitors explore the shores each year, enjoying the rocky intertidal zone. During a low tide, you can peek among the rocks and tidepools and find brilliant anemones, sea stars, crabs and other creatures clinging tightly to the rocks, waiting for the returning tide.

Unfortunately, this endless fascination and love of the rocky coastline can cause serious impacts to nearshore ecosystems. Recognizing this threat, the state attempted to protect the rocky seashores of Southern California by designating marine protected areas (MPAs). In Orange County, seven California Marine Life Refuges were created between 1968 and 1970; additional restrictions on recreational collecting and commercial fishing activities in unprotected intertidal areas were added several years later. However, at the time of establishment of these marine protected areas (MPAs), the state did not set up a system to evaluate their effectiveness and use the information to adapt management accordingly.

Professor Steve Murray at California State University in Fullerton has studied coastal marine populations and ecosystems for over 35 years. He and his students have focused particularly on visitor impacts (trampling, collecting and tide-pooling) to identify changes in the abundances of marine life. Dr. Murray’s team found that without proper enforcement, signage and education, MPA status unfortunately did little to protect many intertidal organisms, particularly those targeted by collectors on shores accessible to the public. 

Informed by Dr. Murray’s USC Sea Grant funded research, Orange County shoreline communities began to adopt policies to foster the management and stewardship of their rocky-intertidal MPAs. The cities of Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, and Dana Point, in coordination with local state parks, established positions for shore or reserve managers, who patrol the coast of Orange County during low tides to educate and advise visitors on proper stewardship; they are known as the Orange County Marine Protected Area Council. These managers are now aided by a growing cadre of docents who volunteer their time to educate shore visitors on appropriate tidepool etiquette.

 "Education is often the best enforcement," says Calla Allison, Marine Protection Officer for Laguna Beach. "Programs that offer positive and low impact visits to the tidepools, along with consistent and well publicized regulations, and ongoing monitoring and research like Dr. Murray’s, are an essential part of the successful regional management plan that the OCMPAC is trying to implement."

More recent research, funded by USC Sea Grant and the Minerals Management Service (U.S. Department of Interior), focused on long-term changes in rocky intertidal populations and communities over a period of shifts in oceanographic climate and of steadily increasing urbanization of our coastlines. These long-term data sets have made it possible to identify and quantify changes in species abundance and community structure over the last 50 years, and, more importantly, to determine changes due to natural variations in climate and those attributed to human impact. This research is useful for federal and state agencies such as U.S. Department of Interior, California Department of Fish and Game, the California Coastal Commission and the California State Water Resources Control Board, all interested in how these changes may affect monitoring programs in the future and strengthen their ability to determine the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems.

Dr. Murray's work is a perfect example of how scientific research and targeted monitoring can help inform and refine management strategies; this is referred to as adaptive management, one of the cornerstones of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) in California. The 1999 act calls for the redesign of California’s existing MPAs into a more science-based interconnected network. Dr. Murray has been a longstanding participant in the implementation of the MLPA and currently sits as one of the co-chairs of the South Coast Science Advisory Team, providing scientific advice and evaluation for the stakeholders and policymakers working on the redesign of Southern California’s MPAs. Studies like Dr. Murray’s have informed the implementation of the MLPA, demonstrating the importance of resource management informed by science. Collaborative and creative solutions to resource protection are indeed possible once a community decides to protect its coastal resources.

"Sea Grant support allows a researcher to pursue answers to an important and relevant scientific question…I like this kind of work, and so do my students, because I, and they, see a direct connection between their research and its use." ---Dr. Steven Murray