Integrated coastal management: a concept in practice in central California through the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) encompasses over 5,000 square miles of ocean area along the California coast between San Francisco and Cambria. The overall goal of the program is to protect and enhance natural resources in a wide array of habitats within its boundaries. MBNMS achieves this goal through a responsive integrated coastal management approach that promotes cooperation between the Sanctuary office and other public agencies and capitalizes on the expertise of individuals and interest groups that share a common interest in preserving the natural resources of the Sanctuary. The structure of the program involves integrating a small Sanctuary staff with various management agencies and interest groups. An example of this integration includes coordination with the Sanctuary Advisory Council, made up of twenty-four representatives from public agencies and user interests plus specific working groups for research (22 marine institutions), education (20 educational institutions) and conservation (15 conservation organizations). The Sanctuary also is involved in developing a water quality protection program for the region that presently involves twenty-seven different agencies plus interest groups. Additionally, the public has opportunities for input into the program through council meetings, through representatives from working groups or council members, and through contact with Sanctuary staff. The MBNMS program is linked nationally with eleven other Sanctuaries and twenty-six Estuarine Research Reserves through the Sanctuaries and Reserves Division in Washington DC. This integrated approach has addressed numerous issues ranging from assessing former military exclusion zones and improving water quality to facilitating multiple resource use conflicts such as shark chumming. In this manuscript, I will outline the structure and process of the MBNMS integrated management approach and provide examples of resource management issues that have been addressed.