Final technical report - Beach Watch baseline analysis of birds, mammals, and human use in the North Central Coast baseline monitoring of marine protected areas

The 1999 Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) directed the state of California to design a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to protect, sustain and conserve marine life populations and increase health, productivity and resilience of ocean ecosystems. The MLPA requires monitoring of MPAs to facilitate adaptive management of these areas and ensure that the MPA network meets the goals of the Act. The North Central Coast (NCC) Marine Protected Areas Baseline Program is a collaborative effort among the State Coastal Conservancy, Ocean Protection Council (OPC), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), California Ocean Science Trust, MPA Monitoring Enterprise and California Sea Grant. “The program seeks to provide a summary description, assessment and understanding of ecological and socioeconomic conditions, inside and outside NCC MPAs to be designated under the Marine Life Protection Act, at or near the time of MPA implementation” (NCC MPA Monitoring Plan, 2010). The North Central Coast MPA region consist of 25 MPAs and 6 special closure areas comprised of approximately 153 square miles (20.1%) of state waters within the region. In this baseline assessment for the MPA, we use the Beach Watch monitoring data, collected by citizen-scientists. Created in 1993, Beach Watch is a public-private partnership of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary (GFNMS) and the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association (FMSA), developed to study and protect the shoreline of GFNMS and northern portion of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.