Development of a Statewide Estuary Monitoring Program to Evaluate California’s Estuarine Marine Protected Areas

California’s estuaries are influenced by watershed land use, coastal infrastructure, water resource management, and other stressors. To address the monitoring needs of Estuary Marine Protected Areas (EMPA), the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) funded development of a monitoring framework and program to provide data and information necessary to answer critical management questions about both MPA and non-MPA estuaries statewide. The integrated estuarine monitoring framework, developed by a statewide technical team (working with a Management Advisory Committee), provides sampling design, standard protocols, and data management tools to facilitate collection, integration, and dissemination of biotic and abiotic data in a consistent and accessible manner. A monitoring manual and associated website provide details and documentation of the scientific basis and the tools necessary to implement the monitoring program. The technical team has also produced a data report to illustrate how data collected through the monitoring program can be used to answer scientific and management questions about estuary health and stressors, and how that information can inform management decisions.