MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS
AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011
ABSTRACTS OF TALKS
relatively low-cost field work, through platform-of-opportunity surveys on the high seas, coastal,
small-boat surveys and recently through autonomous passive acoustic monitoring on continental
shelf waters of British Columbia, Canada. Acoustic monitoring can detect the presence of
vocalizing cetaceans in poorly surveyed areas and seasons, while simultaneously measuring
ambient noise levels, which constitute an important human-use layer for measuring habitat
quality for acoustically sensitive species. Acoustic research now allows estimation of acoustic
space that whales lose from chronic shipping and seismic survey noise. Some policy
frameworks, such as Canada’s Species at Risk Act and possibly the EU Habitats Directive, may
allow this science to lead to mitigation through MPA planning. Our vision is for a network of
Quiet MPAs. Our recommended approach would (1) map data and gaps, (2) make predictions
about species presence based on habitat suitability, and (3) test those predictions on a randomly
chosen subset of regions and species using field data collected from surveys and passive
acoustic monitoring. Based on our experience on the continental shelf, we see our approach as
one that could be transported to the high seas. We cannot consider MPAs to be wholly
protected if the management plans ignore acoustic elements, given the importance of sound as
the primary modality by which many marine species obtain information about their environments.
14.45–15.15 POSTER SESSION (TEA/COFFEE)
SESSION IV (cont): SOLUTIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENCE INTO POLICY
Chair: Kirsty Kemp (Institute of Zoology, ZSL)
15.15–15.40 Seamounts are hotspots of pelagic biodiversity in the open oceans and
areas of special interest for management of marine pelagic predators
Telmo Morato 1 , Simon D. Hoyle 2 , Valerie Allain 2 and Simon J. Nicol 2 ,
1 Universidade dos Açores, Portugal, 2 Oceanic Fisheries Program, Secretariat
of the Pacific Community, Noumea, New Caledonia
The identification of biodiversity hotspots and their management for conservation have been
hypothesized as effective ways to protect many species. There has been a significant effort to
identify and map these areas at a global scale, but the coarse resolution of most datasets
masks the small-scale patterns associated with coastal habitats or seamounts. We used tuna
longline observer data to investigate the role of seamounts in aggregating large pelagic
biodiversity and to identify which pelagic species are associated with seamounts. Our analysis
indicates that seamounts are hotspots of pelagic biodiversity. Higher species richness was
detected in association with seamounts than with coastal or oceanic areas. Seamounts were
found to have higher species diversity within 30–40 km of the summit, whereas for sets close to
coastal habitat the diversity was lower and fairly constant with distance. Higher probability of
capture and higher number of fish caught were detected for some shark, billfish, tuna, and
other by-catch species. Our study supports hypotheses that seamounts may be areas of
special interest for management for marine pelagic predators. We have also evaluated the
existence of an association between seamounts and tuna longline fisheries at the ocean basin
scale to identify significant seamounts for tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean. Our
study identified many seamounts throughout the western Pacific Ocean that may act as
important aggregating points for tuna species. This indicates that management of seamounts
For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org