Cover • Table of Contents • Executive Summary Background & Goals • SIMoN • References • Figures • Table

I. Background and General Goals

A. Ecosystem Monitoring Comprehensive, long-term monitoring is a fundamental element of resource management and conservation. It has been recognized in numerous reviews and studies that coordinated, standardized approaches to monitoring are essential to effectively determine temporal and spatial trends [1]. However, despite the substantial efforts by private and government organizations, monitoring programs are typically incomplete, inconsistent, fragmented and inaccessible. This is commonly a result of insufficient infrastructure and funding to achieve a comprehensive, long-term perspective. To assure the effective and continuous evaluation of a region and its resources, particularly large areas on the scale of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), a commitment towards a stable network of flexible ecosystem and issue-based monitoring programs is needed. Figure 1: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary B. Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary The MBNMS is a federally protected marine area offshore of California's central coast (Fig. 1). Stretching from Rocky Point (Marin County) to Cambria (just north of Morro Bay), it encompasses nearly 300 miles of shoreline, 5,322 square miles of ocean, and extends from mean high tide to a seaward boundary an average of 35 miles offshore. At its deepest point, the MBNMS reaches depths of 3,250 meters (nearly two miles). It is the nation's largest marine sanctuary, and by volume, the world's largest as well (Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the largest by area). The MBNMS was officially established in 1992 by authority of the Secretary of Commerce (under the 1972 Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act) because: The area is of special national significance due to its resource or human-use values existing state and federal authorities are inadequate to ensure coordinated and comprehensive conservation and management of the area, including resource protection, scientific research, and public education designation of the area will ensure comprehensive conservation and management, including resource protection, scientific research, and public education the area is of a size and nature that will permit comprehensive and coordinated conservation and management. The aesthetic, ecological and economical value of the MBNMS is unmatched. It spans marine environments of striking contrasts and beauty, encompassing windswept coastal bluffs of the north sanctuary, broad sand beaches and dunes of Monterey Bay, spectacular cliffs and countless creeks of the Big Sur coast, and the dramatic depths of Monterey Canyon and numerous lesser submarine canyons. The Sanctuary's waters bathe a great variety of habitats, including lush kelp forests, productive coastal lagoons, and unique deep-sea cold seep communities, that are home to rare and in some cases threatened and endangered species such as sea otters and snowy plovers. The MBNMS also supports a wide variety of commercial ventures important to both the local and national economy. For example, fishing provides over $50 million per year and 2,000 jobs to local economies of the MBNMS [3], and tourism in Monterey County alone (most of it centered around the ocean) is responsible for nearly $2 billion per year and is approaching 20,000 travel and tourism related jobs [4]. "We do not currently have adequate monitoring programs to assess regional ecological conditions. The EPA's EMAP, USGS's NAWQA, and NOAA's Coast Watch are aimed in the right direction. However, the overall lack of consistent support for long-term monitoring will continue to hinder progressive ecosystem management." 1996 Report of the Ecological Society of America Committee on the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem Management [2]. C. Rationale, Objectives and Methods The management plans for all national marine sanctuaries mandate implementation of a monitoring program [5]. The purpose of such programs is to detect natural and human induced changes to sanctuary resources and advise resource managers on necessary steps to protect those resources. Additional, directed monitoring efforts can then be employed to determine the success of management strategies. Given the size and complexity of the MBNMS and number of potential human impacts, this is not a trivial task. However, the MBNMS is uniquely suited for the challenge of comprehensive, long-term monitoring. Figure 2: Research Organizations Adjacent ot the MBNMS With over 40 institutions and organizations along the central California coast examining various aspects of the Sanctuary (Fig. 2), the greater Monterey Bay area is an internationally recognized leader in marine research, resource management, and policy. Much of the infrastructure needed for extensive monitoring of this region is therefore in place. The entire MBNMS can be managed more effectively by summarizing and integrating information from existing monitoring efforts at these regional institutions and by identifying and filling critical gaps in our current knowledge. Through a series of steps (summarized below), the MBNMS has established ties with existing programs and has documented and prioritized important issues to be addressed in a new long-term, integrated ecosystem monitoring network that utilizes existing data sets, supports and augments current research/monitoring efforts, and addresses important information gaps. This Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) is the blueprint for effective, comprehensive monitoring of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and can serve as a model for other national marine sanctuaries and perhaps marine protected areas worldwide. NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program will pay critical attention to how SIMoN is developed and how well it works in coordinating data collection and analysis so it can be replicated or modified depending on the monitoring needs of individual sanctuaries and the resources available from partner institutions. The SIMoN program presented here was built in a systematic manner. Beginning in July 1999, surveys of scientists and resource managers throughout the MBNMS, and searches of reference material (peer-reviewed, "gray" and electronic) were conducted to identify programs and data sets that are pertinent to monitoring MBNMS resources. Biological, geological, physical, chemical, and human impact data were then assembled in a summary table of monitoring efforts (App. 1). A review of existing national and international monitoring efforts was also conducted and while the great majority were specific, problem-driven programs (e.g., water quality or rare species), several successful approaches were identified and will be incorporated into new SIMoN efforts. A workshop was then held in April 2000 with regional scientists and resource managers to identify and develop basic approaches for answering the key questions to be addressed in a new Sanctuary-wide monitoring network (App. 2). Finally, using the workshop results and the summary table of historic data sets and ongoing programs, MBNMS staff worked with an advisory committee of local experts (listed in App. 2) to (1) identify the critical gaps and "areas of need", (2) develop basic strategies for addressing monitoring needs while integrating existing programs and data sets, and (3) develop strategies for disseminating information. The results of these exercises are presented in the next section. The strength of SIMoN is that the MBNMS will serve as the hub for regional marine ecosystem monitoring. Local scientists will continue to collect the large majority of monitoring data, but the Sanctuary will help generate much of the funds required to maintain or extend some existing efforts and to initiate new programs in the identified areas of need. The MBNMS will also integrate and interpret results of individual programs in a large ecosystem-wide context and continuously update and disseminate data summaries to facilitate the sharing of information between researchers, managers, educators, and the public. Finally, researchers can also use the areas of need listed in this document, and the SIMoN program itself, as added justification of their work when submitting proposals for funding independent of the MBNMS. As with existing programs, newly funded independent efforts will be welcomed into SIMoN where the Sanctuary gains additional information about its resources and researchers are able to place their work into a larger conservation and resource management context.

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