The First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas

• Protect whole communities of organisms/habitats.
• Manage Ecosystems (EBM).
• Manage Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs).
• Whether MPA or MPAN design was right.
• Whether management is effective at addressing threats.
• Whether, in light of global change, MPA locations need to be changed.
• Whether wider effects of MPAs or MPANs are positive.
Without adaptive management built into the design of the protected area, answering
such questions becomes difficult if not impossible, and adaptive management for
effective conservation remains elusive.
Nesting marine mammals within broader ecosystem concerns: Are cuddly blubberies a proxy for the
arcane anxieties of academics? And does it matter?
Mike Donoghue and Sue Miller-Taei
<strong>The</strong> establishment of MPAs in New Zealand is a complex process. Multiple,
sophisticated ecological principles are generally considered during the process, which can
become heavily academic. It is often implicitly assumed that MPAs established largely to
benefit marine mammals contribute to the protection of marine biodiversity more
generally. In other words, because of their charismatic appeal, marine mammals can
function as flagship or umbrella species.
<strong>The</strong> marine mammal sanctuaries established over the past 25 years through section 22 of
New Zealand’s Marine Mammals Protection Act (1978) have had mixed results. In the
Auckland Islands, the number of southern right whales over-wintering in the marine
mammal sanctuary has increased spectacularly, but New Zealand sea lions, which forage
mainly outside the sanctuary boundaries, have remained vulnerable to bycatch in the
trawl fishery. Recently, four new marine mammal sanctuaries were established to protect
the endemic Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, and the existing sanctuary for Hector’s
dolphins at Banks Peninsula was greatly enlarged. Because entanglement is the major
known threat to these dolphins, the Ministry of Fisheries has banned the use of inshore
gillnets throughout much of their range. It is essential for government agencies (in New
Zealand particularly the Ministries of Conservation and Fisheries) to work cooperatively
to address this and other marine biodiversity issues.
It must be acknowledged that marine mammal sanctuaries, by themselves, often have no
positive effect on threats to the health of the marine environment, such as urban and
agricultural runoff, point-source pollution, and noise from ship traffic and industrial
activity. <strong>The</strong> only piece of New Zealand legislation that articulates a holistic approach to
marine conservation is the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act, which provides for integrated
management of the Hauraki Gulf across 21 statutes, including the Resource Management
Act, the Conservation Act, and the Fisheries Act. However, thus far the Hauraki Gulf
Marine Park Act has scarcely been invoked or implemented.
ICMMPA <strong>Conference</strong> Proceedings
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