marine reserves

Report calls for immediate creation of marine reserves throughout U.S.

A network of fully protected reserves should be established immediately in all major marine habitats of the coastal United States, according to a sweeping new report on the future of America’s oceans. “The term ‘marine reserve’ refers to an area in which no extractive use of any biological or mineral resource is allowed,” said Stephen R. Palumbi, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University who authored the January report. “That means all commercial and recreational fishing, as well as oil and gas exploration, would be off limits.”

Researchers Develop New Approach for Designing Marine Reserves

The culmination of hundreds of research dives, scientific analysis, and high-tech mapping software has led to a fundamentally new approach for designing networks of marine reserves. An effort led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and reported in the Dec. 6 issue of Science, could become a powerful new method for decision makers charged with developing marine reserves and a forerunner for similar efforts around the world.