Marine protected areas for whales, dolphins, and porpoises: a world ...

358 Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises
MARINE REGION 15: NORTHEAST PACIFIC
Cetacean habitat in the Northeast Pacific Marine Region ranges from desert
coastal lagoons in México to glacial fjords in Alaska. This region contains both
summer and winter habitat for a number of baleen whales, including substantial
portions of the world populations of blue and gray whales. The population of
blues in the region, found mainly off central California, is the world’s largest
and healthiest. Other cetacean species with portions of their habitat in the
region include fin, Bryde’s, minke, North Pacific right and sperm whales, as
well as Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall’s and harbor porpoises. Since the early
1970s, the region has been the world centre for orca research. At least two of
the known populations of orcas in US waters have very low, declining numbers
and have been proposed for endangered species status. The region’s humpback
whales have also supported long-term research since the 1970s. This work has
recently intensified with a cooperative international research effort called
‘SPLASH’ (Structure of Populations, Levels of Abundance and Status of
Humpbacks, 2004–2007) to try to understand humpback whales in the North
Pacific (applies to Marine Regions 14, 15 and 16).
One cetacean species endemic to the area is nearing extinction: the Gulf of
California porpoise or vaquita. The Mexican government has created an MPA
in the northern Gulf of California to try to save it, but it may well be too late.
In 1972, the Mexican government created the world’s first ever cetacean MPA
at Laguna Ojo de Liebre (Scammon’s Lagoon), the most important lagoon for
mating and calving gray whales. Today this area, along with San Ignacio Lagoon,
remains the core of El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve which includes gray whale
coastal habitat and several lagoons. These efforts by the Mexican government,
together with international agreements through the IWC to refrain from killing
gray whales, have helped the species rebound from close to extinction.
Other notable MPAs in the region are the National Marine Sanctuaries of
Monterey Bay, Cordell Bank, Gulf of the Farallones and Channel Islands,
which include substantial blue, humpback and other large whale feeding areas
as well as year-round habitat for various dolphins. These California sanctuaries
provide a good example of the beginnings of an MPA network that could
protect cetacean species over much of their range, or at least in the key critical
habitats. In Canada, the Robson Bight/Michael Bigg Ecological Reserve is a
small reserve in Johnstone Strait for the resting and rubbing areas of resident
orcas from the ‘northern community’. There are proposals for expanded areas
to protect orca and other cetacean habitat in British Columbia and Washington
State waters.
The Northeast Pacific Marine Region features the US west coast and
Alaska, western Canada and west coast México to the border of Guatemala.
Sometimes referred to as ‘Bering to Baja’, the Northeast Pacific Marine Region
has four large marine ecosystems (LMEs) that have been identified: the East
Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, California Current and Gulf of California. Thus, it
has portions of North Pacific subpolar, temperate, subtropical and tropical