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

22 Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises
An area classified solely as Category VI is an incomplete MPA; to become a
true MPA, it must contain areas of higher protection such as natural reserves
or other IUCN Category I core areas to protect essential critical habitat for
species found in the MPA. Unfortunately, some governments have
misinterpreted the IUCN categories and have taken to declaring MPAs using
Category VI alone, without including areas with a higher level of protection or
any change in the management regime of the area (ie, essentially with all users
and uses continuing on as they were before ‘protection’).
The IUCN protected area management categories have been used for
MPAs as well as for the PAs for which they were originally established. Still,
there is continuing debate about adapting or adjusting the categories specifically
to fit MPAs because they are often comprised of various zone types and have
varied, multiple objectives. Kelleher (pers comm 2003) strongly suggests
keeping the categories the same. A useful refinement, suggested by Kelleher
and Recchia (1998), would classify the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, for
example, as ‘VI (Ia, Ib, II, III, IV)’ which would show both the category VI for
the overall area as well as the complex composition of the zones or core areas
inside. Please note, however, that by itself the categorization of an MPA does
not necessarily indicate size, design, degree of protection or even the full extent
of management objectives, nor does it allow one to establish the degree of
biological representation or effective management (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA,
2003). Still, combined with other information, the categories do provide
indications of the kind of protection intended. Also, note that outside the I–VI
category system, there are several marine management areas that confer some
measure of protection including fishing closures, restricted pollution areas,
national and certain international high-seas sanctuaries. National and
international high-seas sanctuaries are also covered in this book, as a category
separate from MPAs.
MPA practitioners and conservationists most often use the name ‘marine
protected area’ and the acronym ‘MPA’, but in practice there are numerous
names used around the world, many of which have specific meanings or uses
in particular countries or contexts. In some cases, as shown in Table 1.3, the
same term can mean something different in another part of the world. For
example, ‘reserve’ or ‘marine reserve’ is used interchangeably with MPA in some
parts of the world, or it can mean an area strictly reserved, a no-take reserve,
which is, in effect, the highly protected core area of a biosphere reserve-type
MPA, which also includes zones to allow human uses such as marine tourism
and fishing. I will adopt the more specific, highly protected area use of the word
‘reserve’ here, and use ‘marine protected area’ or ‘MPA’ as a generic term for a
multi-use IUCN Category I–VI area (which may or may not contain reserves).
Another example of a term with disparate meanings is the word ‘sanctuary’.
‘Sanctuary’ in the US is used to describe the flagship national marine protected
areas, which are called ‘US National Marine Sanctuaries’. Yet ‘sanctuary’
through much of the world, and in the sense I will mainly use here, refers to an
animal sanctuary – an area where an animal can have a retreat, usually from
hunting. To most cetacean researchers, ‘sanctuary’ has the connotation of a