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Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely utilized for conservation of the world’s marine resources. Yet, compliance with MPA regulations remains difficult to measure because of limits to human resources and a lack of affordable technologies to automate monitoring over time. The Marine Monitor, an au...

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Autores principales: Cope, Samantha, Tougher, Brendan, Morten, Jessica, Pukini, Cory, Zetterlind, Virgil
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9286260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35839164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269490
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author Cope, Samantha
Tougher, Brendan
Morten, Jessica
Pukini, Cory
Zetterlind, Virgil
author_facet Cope, Samantha
Tougher, Brendan
Morten, Jessica
Pukini, Cory
Zetterlind, Virgil
author_sort Cope, Samantha
collection PubMed
description Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely utilized for conservation of the world’s marine resources. Yet, compliance with MPA regulations remains difficult to measure because of limits to human resources and a lack of affordable technologies to automate monitoring over time. The Marine Monitor, an autonomous vessel monitoring, recording, and reporting system leveraging commercial off-the-shelf X-band marine radar to detect and track vessels, was used to monitor five nearshore California MPAs simultaneously and continuously to identify and compare site-specific use patterns over one year. Vessel tracks were classified into two movement patterns to capture likely fishing activity, “focal” or “linear”, that corresponded with local targeted species. Some illegal fishing potentially occurred at all sites (7–17% of tracks depending on site) most frequently on weekends and at mid-day, but the majority of activity occurred just outside the MPAs and in the near vicinity suggesting both a high level of compliance with regulations and awareness of MPA boundaries. Time spent engaged in potential fishing activity compared to track counts suggests that unique vessels may spend more time fishing inside area boundaries at some sites than others. The spatial distribution of activity shows distinct concentrations near MPA boundaries at all sites which strongly suggests vessels purposefully target the narrow area at the MPA boundary or “fish the line”, a potential acknowledgement of successful spillover. This activity increased significantly during some local fishing seasons. Concentration of activity at MPA boundaries highlights the importance of continuous monitoring at a high spatial and temporal resolution. Reporting of vessel behavior at a fine-scale using radar can help resource managers target enforcement efforts and understand human use patterns near coastal MPAs.
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spelling pubmed-92862602022-07-16 Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas Cope, Samantha Tougher, Brendan Morten, Jessica Pukini, Cory Zetterlind, Virgil PLoS One Research Article Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely utilized for conservation of the world’s marine resources. Yet, compliance with MPA regulations remains difficult to measure because of limits to human resources and a lack of affordable technologies to automate monitoring over time. The Marine Monitor, an autonomous vessel monitoring, recording, and reporting system leveraging commercial off-the-shelf X-band marine radar to detect and track vessels, was used to monitor five nearshore California MPAs simultaneously and continuously to identify and compare site-specific use patterns over one year. Vessel tracks were classified into two movement patterns to capture likely fishing activity, “focal” or “linear”, that corresponded with local targeted species. Some illegal fishing potentially occurred at all sites (7–17% of tracks depending on site) most frequently on weekends and at mid-day, but the majority of activity occurred just outside the MPAs and in the near vicinity suggesting both a high level of compliance with regulations and awareness of MPA boundaries. Time spent engaged in potential fishing activity compared to track counts suggests that unique vessels may spend more time fishing inside area boundaries at some sites than others. The spatial distribution of activity shows distinct concentrations near MPA boundaries at all sites which strongly suggests vessels purposefully target the narrow area at the MPA boundary or “fish the line”, a potential acknowledgement of successful spillover. This activity increased significantly during some local fishing seasons. Concentration of activity at MPA boundaries highlights the importance of continuous monitoring at a high spatial and temporal resolution. Reporting of vessel behavior at a fine-scale using radar can help resource managers target enforcement efforts and understand human use patterns near coastal MPAs. Public Library of Science 2022-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9286260/ /pubmed/35839164 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269490 Text en © 2022 Cope et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cope, Samantha
Tougher, Brendan
Morten, Jessica
Pukini, Cory
Zetterlind, Virgil
Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title_full Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title_fullStr Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title_full_unstemmed Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title_short Coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
title_sort coastal radar as a tool for continuous and fine-scale monitoring of vessel activities of interest in the vicinity of marine protected areas
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9286260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35839164
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269490
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