Causey, B.

English

Aquatic Commons

 Proceedings of the 63rd Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute     November 1 - 5, 2010   San Juan, Puerto Rico 
Proposal for an International Network of MPAs: Islands in the Stream 
 
BILLY D. CAUSEY 
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries 
33 East Quay Rd. Key West, Florida 33040 USA.  Billy.Causey@noaa.gov. 
 
ABSTRACT 
This paper describes an opportunity to create an international network of MPAs around the Gulf of Mexico, working through 
collaboration with partner nations around the Caribbean and utilizing the concept of connectivity throughout the region.  A network 
in the comparably-complex Gulf of Mexico region could protect sensitive marine areas such as interconnected deep water coral 
banks and hard-bottom communities vital to the health and sustainability of the region’s marine resources.  Historically considered 
and managed as isolated environments, recent discoveries have documented important biological linkages between these underwater 
communities that are maintained by the clockwise motion of the Yucatan, Loop and Florida currents. Individual reefs and banks, 
some of which are connected by bathymetric ridges and scarps, provide a nearly-continuous “corridor” from Cuba, Belize and 
Mexico, then into the Gulf itself.  Though separated by large expanses of ocean, the fishes, corals, and invertebrates common to 
these reefs and banks demonstrate that the health and vitality of resources “downstream” are linked closely to those located 
“upstream”.  They are dependent on one another for continued recruitment and replenishment.  The Gulf of Mexico region is 
important for several human uses, which can be preserved so that conservation goals are met while respecting ongoing recreational 
and economic activity.   Existing uses of the Gulf of Mexico can co-exist with a highly protected network of marine protected areas.  
This paper explores a strategy to establish an international network of MPAs. 
 
KEY WORDS:  Network, connectivity, MPAs, downstream, upstream, sensitive marine areas 
 
 
Propuesta para Una Res Intrenacional de AMPs: Islas en la Corriente 
 
PALABRAS CLAVE:   Res internacional, áreas marinas protegidas 
 
 
Proposition pour un Réseau International d’AMP: Island in the Stream 
 
MOTS CLÉS:  Aires marines protégées, réseau international 
CHARACTERIZATION 
In comparison to the coral reef distribution in the 
Pacific Ocean, the coral reefs of the Wider Caribbean are 
situated in a much more confined area.  The Wider 
Caribbean is comprised of two semi-enclosed basins, the 
Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.  This close 
proximity contributes considerably to the connectivity that 
exists throughout the region.  Evidence of the connectivity 
has been known for centuries from the current flows that 
bath the area, but more recently by satellite imagery of the 
chlorophyll plumes flowing out of the Orinoco River to the 
west across the Caribbean Sea.  This connectivity has also 
been demonstrated in recent decades by the zigzagging 
tracks of satellite current trackers that record the water 
movement and circulation and beam the recordings up real
-time to satellites.   
The coral reefs of the Wider Caribbean are among the 
most vulnerable in the world.  Combined with the lower 
biodiversity that exists in the Wider Caribbean as com-
pared to the Pacific Ocean, Caribbean coral reefs are 
diminishing.  The closeness and the exposure the coral reef 
communities have to the intensity of climate change in a 
confined area, coupled with land-based sources of 
pollution and habitat loss, exacerbated by destruction from 
use and development in the most heavily accessed coral 
reef environment in the world, while suffering from 
overfishing has left Caribbean coral reefs in a precarious 
position.  
It is anticipated that the connectivity that exists in the 
Wider Caribbean is a positive force where the currents 
provide pathways of travel for larval fish and invertebrates 
that make up the recruits for the next generation of reef 
inhabitants.  However, these pathways of life may also 
carry negative influences that can affect the reef inhabit-
ants from far away.  Unfortunately, the negative impact of 
connectivity was demonstrated in January to July of 1983, 
when a massive die-off of the long-spined sea urchin 
(Diadema antillarum) began in Panama and swept through 
the Caribbean and reached the Florida Keys in July of 
1983.  In less than a year, a mysterious pathogen, possibly 
the microbial response to extremely and unseasonably 
warm conditions on the Caribbean side of Panama in 
November, December 1982, and January 1983, spread via 
the currents and killed 95% of the Diademia in the 
Caribbean in less than a year.  Other such microbial 
responses to elevated sea surface temperatures have been 
recorded in both fish and invertebrates. 
However, there are far more positive examples of how 
the connectivity of the region benefits the life cycles of so 
many fish and invertebrates.  For example, Tarpon move 
    Causey, B.D.   GCFI:63   (2011) Page 295 
from the estuaries of Belize and Mexico all the way to the 
mouth of the Mississippi River and return again.  Bluefin 
Tuna migrate great distances to spawn off the mouth of the 
Mississippi River, only to make their way back to the 
North Atlantic.  Whale sharks move from one spawning 
aggregation site to another, from Belize to Mexico to the 
Gulf of Mexico coral banks and pinnacles.  And, at each 
stop taking advantage of the copious amount of larval 
spawn in the water column.  Connectivity is the key to the 
ecology and biology of the Caribbean.  It is possibly due to 
the thorough and complete mixing and distribution of 
marinelife that occurs in the Caribbean because of the 
strong currents and connectivity, that the endemism 
throughout the region is so low. 
 
BACKGROUND 
This is a discussion of a proposed concept that could 
establish a new precedent for marine conservation in the 
United States.  The concept is to establish a network of 
special marine protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico — the 
largest such network in the Nation and among the first truly 
internationally connected networks in the World.  This 
action would extend protection to a biologically-connected 
network of the Nation’s northernmost coral reefs and banks 
and ensure conservation of sensitive habitats and commu-
nities that are critical to the Gulf’s most recognizable and 
threatened living resources.  At the same time, it would 
provide for recreational and ocean uses that are compatible 
with the primary objective of conservation and lead the 
Nation and its partners in the Caribbean to a new level of 
cooperative conservation.  
 
 
THE PROPOSED ACTION 
An integrated network of marine protected areas in the 
Wider Caribbean, including the Gulf of Mexico will further 
actions that will help define ocean conservation in the 21st 
century.  Establishing a network in the comparably-
complex Gulf of Mexico region will protect a network of 
sensitive marine areas that are interconnected critical deep 
water coral banks and hard-bottom communities vital to the 
health and sustainability of the region’s marine resources.  
Since 2002, The World Summit on Sustainable 
Development, the IUCN's World Parks Congress, the 
Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Group of 8 
Nations have all called for establishing MPA networks by 
the year 2012.  This discussion describes the opportunity 
for the United States to initiate creation of such a network. 
 
WHY THE GULF OF MEXICO?  
Historically considered and managed as isolated 
environments, recent discoveries have documented 
important biological linkages between these underwater 
communities that are maintained by the clockwise motion 
of the Yucatan, Loop and Florida currents.  Individual reefs 
and banks, some of which are connected by bathymetric 
ridges and scarps, provide a nearly-continuous “corridor” 
from Belize and Mexico, then into the Gulf itself.  Though 
separated by large expanses of ocean water, the fishes, 
corals, and invertebrates common to these reefs and banks 
demonstrate that the health and vitality of resources 
“downstream” are linked closely to those located 
“upstream”.  Further, they are dependent on one another 
for the continued biological recruitment and replenishment. 
The Gulf of Mexico region is very important for many 
human uses, which can be preserved so that conservation 
goals are met while respecting ongoing recreational and 
economic activity.  Protection of these special areas must 
carefully incorporate existing recreational and commercial 
uses into the management structure for the network.  In the 
Gulf of Mexico, existing uses can, and do, co-exist with a 
highly protected network of marine areas. 
 
THE CONCEPT OF CONNECTING THE 
 “ISLANDS IN THE STREAM”  
 
i) The “Islands” are those special places anchored in 
the vast Gulf of Mexico that are oases for marine 
life.  
ii) The “Stream” is the river (loop current complex) 
in the Gulf that connects the oases (Islands).  
 
The periphery of the Gulf of Mexico is surrounded by 
an incredible diversity of hard-bottom features rising from 
the seafloor and forming a series of submerged “islands”. 
Some of these features are ancient shorelines, others 
former seabeds thrust up by salt movement; still others 
originate from ancient coral reef growth.  No matter what 
their origin, they now all serve as outposts for diverse 
communities of tropical and subtropical plants, inverte-
brates and fishes.  These outposts, when taken together, 
form a chain of “jewels” encircling the Gulf of Mexico, 
and comprise a regional reservoir of Caribbean reef 
animals and plants. 
Each oasis in the chain is linked to the others by 
currents.  These currents are like a “liquid wind” that 
supplies and replenishes habitats of every kind in the ocean 
realm. Currents are the ocean’s version of the breezes that 
disperse the seeds of dandelions and maples, and the spores 
of mushrooms.  They carry water from the Caribbean Sea 
into and around the Gulf of Mexico supplying habitats that 
are often distant and isolated.  These habitats are dependent 
upon nutrients and larvae carried by currents, which carry 
tropical species north into the Gulf, casting plant spores, 
animal larvae, and even adult creatures over huge expans-
es.  As such, the continued health of each feature is linked 
to the connectivity created by the currents - damage to one 
jewel in the chain can impact the rest.  The strength of 
these connections provides a clear basis for establishing a 
network of special places not only to protect each of these 
unique features, but the entire network as a system.  
 
 Page 296  63rd Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute  
IMPROVED OCEAN GOVERNANCE 
The offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico, and their 
resources, are currently managed under multiple authorities 
by several federal agencies.  For example, the US Depart-
ment of the Interior’s, Minerals Management Service 
(MMS) has historically protected topographic features 
through stipulations in leases that prevent drilling in 
sensitive zones, called no activity areas.  Also, the US 
department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration (NOAA) and the Gulf of Mexico 
Fishery Management Council (GMFMC) have designated 
several of these same topographic features as Habitat Areas 
of Particular Concern, which provide limits on the types of 
fishing that can occur in the area, or closes the areas 
altogether.  In addition, NOAA’s Office of National 
Marine Sanctuaries manages the Flower Garden Banks 
National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) which includes 
several of the “islands” or topographic highs in the 
northwestern Gulf.  The FGBNMS has the highest 
remaining living coral cover in the Wider Caribbean.  
However, there is currently no unifying framework to 
comprehensively manage all of these areas and all of the 
activities affecting them. 
The Gulf of Mexico provides the opportunity to 
establish the largest network of marine protected areas in 
the nation and unify these authorities so that it is managed 
in the most comprehensive and coordinated manner 
possible.  
 
MAKING THE NETWORK INTERNATIONAL  
Like most ecosystems on earth, the Gulf of Mexico 
system does not obey international boundaries.  Because of 
the current system that flows northward from the Caribbe-
an along the Yucatan Peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico, 
hard-bottom habitats downstream from the Caribbean are 
prime areas for thousands of species of corals, sponges, 
fish and other tropical species.  One of the major sources is 
the Meso-American Barrier Reef System (MBRS), the 
second longest barrier reef system in the world. It may 
represent what scientists call a center of diversity for the 
region, which means that it contains nearly all of the reef 
species present in the region.  Other Caribbean reefs may 
have comparable diversity, but the sheer size of the MBRS 
and its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico leaves no question 
about the importance of the biological productivity of the 
MBRS for points north.  It is a connected and interdepend-
ent system.  
As in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico, im-
portant “oases” for marine life are found in the waters off 
Mexico and Belize.  By forming partnerships with Mexico, 
Belize and other nations and providing needed support and 
guidance, the participating nations could simultaneously 
complete an international Gulf-wide network without 
giving up any jurisdictional authority. 
 
 
CONCLUSION 
There is so much that is known today that was not 
known a very short time ago.   The advanced technology 
and improved remote sensing capabilities available today 
have made it possible to accurately describe and delineate 
the physical and natural boundaries that we have to 
incorporate into our management.  These technologies have 
helped us comprehend the vast connectivity that exists and 
how it affects areas upstream and downstream.  Now, there 
is much more known about the far reaching influences of 
stressors on our coral reef ecosystems, while increasing 
knowledge about the spatial and temporal barriers that 
exist.  All of this has increased the number of large scale 
management tools necessary to apply to an ecosystem-
based approach to management, working across domestic 
and international boundaries.  A functioning network of 
MPAs across domestic and international boundaries, with 
the focus on successful management of the resources is 
more representative of how the system was created to 
function.  Jurisdictional and political boundaries distract 
from the natural functions of a thriving ecosystem. 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 


Proposal for an International Network of MPAs: Islands in the Stream.

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Proposal for an International Network of MPAs: Islands in the Stream.

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