Overhauling Ocean Spatial Planning to Improve Marine Megafauna Conservation
Type
ArticleAuthors
Sequeira, Ana Micaela MartinsHays, Graeme Clive
Sims, David W.
Eguíluz, Víctor M.
Rodríguez, Jorge P.
Heupel, Michelle R.
Harcourt, Rob
Calich, Hannah
Queiroz, Nuno
Costa, Daniel Paul
Fernández-Gracia, Juan
Ferreira, Luciana C.
Goldsworthy, Simon David
Hindell, Mark A.
Lea, Mary Anne
Meekan, Mark G.
Pagano, Anthony M.
Shaffer, Scott A.
Reisser, Julia
Thums, Michele
Weise, Michael
Duarte, Carlos M.

KAUST Department
Red Sea Research Center and Computational Bioscience Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi ArabiaBiological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
Marine Science Program
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Date
2019-11-01Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/660500
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Tracking data have led to evidence-based conservation of marine megafauna, but a disconnect remains between the many 1000s of individual animals that have been tracked and the use of these data in conservation and management actions. Furthermore, the focus of most conservation efforts is within Exclusive Economic Zones despite the ability of these species to move 1000s of kilometers across multiple national jurisdictions. To assist the goal of the United Nations General Assembly’s recent effort to negotiate a global treaty to conserve biodiversity on the high seas, we propose the development of a new frontier in dynamic marine spatial management. We argue that a global approach combining tracked movements of marine megafauna and human activities at-sea, and using existing and emerging technologies (e.g., through new tracking devices and big data approaches) can be applied to deliver near real-time diagnostics on existing risks and threats to mitigate global risks for marine megafauna. With technology developments over the next decade expected to catalyze the potential to survey marine animals and human activities in ever more detail and at global scales, the development of dynamic predictive tools based on near real-time tracking and environmental data will become crucial to address increasing risks. Such global tools for dynamic spatial and temporal management will, however, require extensive synoptic data updates and will be dependent on a shift to a culture of data sharing and open access. We propose a global mechanism to store and make such data available in near real-time, enabling a holistic view of space use by marine megafauna and humans that would significantly accelerate efforts to mitigate impacts and improve conservation and management of marine megafauna.Citation
Sequeira, A. M. M., Hays, G. C., Sims, D. W., Eguíluz, V. M., Rodríguez, J. P., Heupel, M. R., … Duarte, C. M. (2019). Overhauling Ocean Spatial Planning to Improve Marine Megafauna Conservation. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00639Sponsors
This manuscript was conceived at the fourth workshop of the Marine Megafauna Movement Analytical Program (MMMAP) in 2018. We thank S. Pei for attending the workshop. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not reflect endorsement by the U.S. Government. Funding. Workshop funding and support granted by ARC Grant No. DE170100841, AIMS, KAUST, and UWA Oceans Institute through a Research Impact Grant. AS was supported by an ARC Grant No. DE170100841 and AIMS. DS was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/R00997X/1) and the Save Our Seas Foundation. NQ was supported by FCT (Portugal). HC was supported by an Australian Government RTP scholarship at UWA.Publisher
Frontiers Media SAJournal
Frontiers in Marine ScienceAdditional Links
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2019.00639/fullhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00639/pdf
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3389/fmars.2019.00639
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Archived with thanks to Frontiers in Marine Science