Dynamic MPAs ver.0.0: Protecting Cowcods From Potential Climate-Forced Hypoxia in Southern California

• Date: 01 June 2014

44 ELR 10496 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 6-2014

Dynamic MPAs

ver.0.0:

Protecting

Cowcods From

Potential

Climate-Forced

Hypoxia in

Southern

California

by Anthony T. Shiao

Anthony T. Shiao is currently a Sea Grant Policy Fellow

at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Summary

Dynamic marine protected areas (MPAs) are areas

with a range of dormant management responses that

turn on only when conditions warrant them. is new

tool has the potential to allow resource managers to

respond to impending but highly uncertain future

environmental harms, such as the eects of climate

change, in a timely fashion without abridging exist-

ing public participation processes. e creation of a

dynamic MPA would require careful integration of

science, law, and policy. Dynamic MPAs would have

three components: (1) management goals; (2) sub-

stantive responses; and (3)triggering indicators. is

Article applies the challenge of managing developing

climate-driven mid-water hypoxia to the protection

of an overexploited sh species in southern California

and creates a hypothetical dynamic MPA based on an

existing MPA.

Government administrators need exibility to

account for uncertainties when ma naging natu-

ral resources.1 At the same time, administrators

must comply with procedural lega l ma ndates when they

take management actions.2 ese mandates can signi-

cantly lengthen t he time managers need to put regulatory

responses into eect.3 Such delays can easily ha mper the

eectiveness of management responses. Minimizing delays

in the context of managing ma rine resources is especially

important, since the ocean is a dyna mic environment and

conditions can change rapidly.

Preemptive administ rative actions can ensure timely

regulator y responses. However, creating and imple-

menting preemptive responses is dicult when complex

uncerta inties that would severely hamper a re source

manager’s ability to project future conditions still e xist.4

For mana gers in c harge of Californ ia’s marine resources,

accounting for the c omplexity of over 800 miles of

coasta l ecosystem in an increasingly volatile climate is

a challenging endeavor. is Art icle proposes the use of

dynamic marine protected areas (MPAs) a s a potential

tool for managers to eciently mana ge a dynamic system

in the face of substantial uncerta inties. By synthesizing

a ran ge of solutions ahead of t ime, ma nagers can imple-

ment those solutions in a timely manner, comply w ith

existi ng procedura l mandates, and take into ac count any

signic ant lack of i nformation.

is Article proposes a new ma nagement tool, the

dynamic MPA, which resource manager s can use to man-

age complex environmenta l problems. Part I discusses

what a dynamic MPA is, why it is preferable to traditional

MPAs under certai n circumstanc es, and the pertinent

California statutes it can be implemented under. Part II

analy zes the process of creating a dynamic MPA using an

emerging environmental issue cu rrently facing southern

California MPAs as the context. Part III uses the pro -

cess and issue discussed in Part II to create a hypothetical

dynamic MPA.

1. See James William Merrill, 

-

tion Act, 60 C. U. L. R. 475 (2011).

2.  note 14.

3.  note 16.

4.  note 18.

          

       

expressed in this Article are entirely his own and do not reect the



   

  

     

two members.

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