Designing Ocean Parks for the Next Century

Gary E. Davis

If human stewardship has been lax on land, it has been even worse in the sea.
National Park System Advisory Board, 20011

Fishing in national parks

FISHING HAS LONG BEEN A TRADITIONAL USE OF NATIONAL PARKS. Fishing has been part of
park lore and attraction, from 19th-century commercial cutthroat trout fishing in Yellow-
stone Lake to world-renowned sport fishing for tarpon and bonefish in Everglades National
Park’s Florida Bay and the annual 70,000-ton take of market squid from Channel Islands Na-
tional Park in the late 20th century.2 National Park Service policies that direct fishing have
been published for decades, with a stated goal to preserve wild, native species in their natu-
ral habitats, while providing fishing opportunities that do not interfere with preservation
efforts. Such policies could also have been developed for other “renewable resources” such
as birds, bees, and redwood trees, but were not. The removal of marine wildlife in parks still
occurred although there is no authority that exempts fish and other aquatic wild life in parks
from the protection of the 1916 Organic Act, which directs NPS to “conserve . . . the wild
life [in parks] and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such
means as will leave them unimpaired. . . . ” The 75 ocean units currently in the national park
system include large submarine areas of Glacier Bay, Alaska, Dry Tortugas, Florida, and
Channel Islands, California, that entered the park system early, in the 1920s and 1930s. Nar-
row strips of ocean adjacent to a host of barrier islands and beaches in national seashores
from Cape Cod to Point Reyes, Great Lakes lakeshores, recreational areas, and parks like
Redwood and Olympic came into the park system, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. A few
park units are virtually all underwater, such as Biscayne National Park, Florida, and Buck
Island Reef and Virgin Islands Coral Reef national monuments in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Inclusion of these sites in the national park system clearly indicates the legitimacy of afford-
ing ocean ecosystems the protections such designations afford terrestrial resources. The
apparent de facto, unstated, hypothesis for ocean parks seems to have been that protecting

Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 7

 NPS Centennial Essay

habitats and water quality would be sufficient to mitigate the negative effects of fishing mor-
tality and leave exploited populations and ecosystems unimpaired. That hypothesis is falsi-
fied repeatedly in virtually every national park system unit in which it has been examined. In
light of this new information, it is time to re-evaluate the assumptions of sustainable fishing
and unimpaired ocean wild life in national parks.

A vision for future generations wild life of essential habitats by being polit-
Place-based conservation in the ocean ically cut off from the sea, need to be made
lags a century behind similar endeavors on ecologically whole by adding adjacent sub-
land. Establishment of Yellowstone Nation- merged lands and waters to adequately pro-
al Park in 1872 and the passage of the tect foraging and other ocean habitats
Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctu- essential to the daily survival of park wild
aries Act a century later in 1972 provide life, such as seabirds and seals (Figure 1).
emblematic mileposts. As a consequence of The confluence of human interests with
this circumstance, wild life in ocean parks coastal watersheds and ocean waters should
has been neglected and abused. It is high drive designs of new ocean parks and differ-
time to close that land–sea gap, especially as entiate them from other marine protected
we envision the future of national parks in areas.
another century of NPS stewardship. To Forecasting the long-term future is
achieve the vision of the Organic Act, wild needed to achieve more than just incremen-
life in ocean parks must be fully protected. tal adjustments in the park system.
Also, coastal parks in which park bound- Significant change will come only with
aries fragment ecosystems, thus depriving inspirational visions of great things that will

Figure 1. Shorelines are artificial boundaries that distract viewers from seeing connec-
tions among mountain watersheds and deep seascapes; they obscure the depend-
ence of coastal wild life on both realms, and mask powerful links between land and
sea. Photo by Dorothy A. Davis, © 2002 G.E. Davis & Associates.

8 The George Wright Forum

 NPS Centennial Essay

stir passions in people to achieve them. To stability, and beauty of ocean parks are per-
that end, I propose that at the bicentennial ilously close to extinction.
of the National Park System in 2116, people In spite of dire conditions in ocean
visiting ocean parks should expect to see parks, one can find glimmers of hope in the
and experience: general sea of despair regarding ocean con-
servation and preservation of maritime her-
• Well-managed, fully protected ocean itage. One of the brightest was establish-
parks with spectacular features as icon- ment in 2006 of the 89.5-million-acre, fully
ic as those of Yellowstone, Grand Can- protected Papahanaumokuakea Marine Na-
yon, and Yosemite; tional Monument in the near-pristine
• Park wild life in the ocean as pristine as northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Admini-
it was before the Industrial Revolution stered jointly by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
(Figure 2); Service and the National Oceanic and At-
• Wilderness in ocean
parks that inspires peo- Figure 2. Diversity of wild life in the ocean dwarfs biodiversity on
land, stretches human imagination about life forms, and offers
ple to be better stew- opportunities for communities to act locally in ways that can reduce
ards of nature; and global forces challenging human health and well-being. Photo by
• Ocean parks that are G.E. Davis, © 2006 G.E. Davis & Associates.
living laboratories teach-
ing people about nature
and how to improve
human health and well-
being.

These goals, well with-

in our grasp today, are rap-
idly slipping through our
collective fingers, and win-
dows of opportunity are
closing. If the current gener-
ation of park professionals
does not act decisively now
with broad and persistent
public support, no subse-
quent generation will have
an option to know the sea as
we first experienced it, to
know the joy of fishing, or to
wonder at the beauty of
coral reefs and kelp forests.
These experiences are fad-
ing now. Irreplaceable spe-
cies critical to the integrity,
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 9
 NPS Centennial Essay

mospheric Administration, this one nation- what they could expect to catch if they went
al monument is larger than the entire U.S. fishing with us.
national park system. Elsewhere, much Then in 1960, everything changed.
remains to be done to repair the damage The yellowtail failed to appear as they “nor-
from decades of denial and neglect of spe- mally” did in June. After searching desper-
cial places in the ocean. Knowing how this ately for weeks, we finally located schools of
situation developed may help avoid the mis- albacore tuna far offshore in early July. For
takes of the past and guide us to a different the next few years we chased elusive schools
outcome in the future. of tuna as they mysteriously appeared and
disappeared along the coast. Any concept of
Expectations and sliding baselines “normal” seemed hopeless as we struggled
Expectations are powerful forces of to make sense of our new experiences and
human nature. As a child, I loved to fish. So to provide good fishing opportunities for
my first job was a dream come true. In June our passengers.
1957, I became a deckhand on the commer- The mysteries of these early years led
cial passenger fishing vessel Fisherette out me to university training in fisheries science
of San Diego, California. I loved the adven- and marine ecology. Now we understand
ture of fishing. The boat captain taught me that 1957–59 was one of the strongest El
where, when, and how to catch yellowtail, Niño events of the 20th century. It marked
tuna, and marlin. Our passengers caught the beginning of a decadal oscillation of
their limits of 20-plus-pound yellowtail warm water some oceanographers are call-
nearly every day. Striped marlin that tipped ing El Viejo (father of El Niño) that lasted
the scales at 150 pounds were plentiful. 50 years. What I naively thought was nor-
One day we landed ten marlin, limits for all mal in the 1950s from my personal experi-
five passengers. In the beginning, my men- ence turned out to be one of the most
tors seemed to know all there was to know extreme natural events in a century. The
about fishing and the ocean, and they apparently elusive comings and goings of
shared that traditional knowledge with me albacore were also a function of predicable
freely. Every day I learned something new. I patterns in nature. When colliding “fronts”
was in paradise. between cool and warm ocean water masses
As we slipped out of San Diego harbor remain stable in sun-lit surface waters for
each morning in the pre-dawn darkness, more than two weeks, nutrients in the cool
twinkling city lights reflected on the smooth water have enough time to be converted
dark water, invoking visions of the romantic into food webs that produce the small for-
lyrics of “Harbor Lights,” a popular tune of age fish sought by tuna. Before satellites
the day. Our first order of business each gave us synoptic ocean views, it was difficult
morning was “making bait”—catching the to see and understand such patterns in
sardines, anchovies, or mackerel we used oceanic water masses. Such new ecological
later to catch the gamefish our sport fishing knowledge helped us understand and
clients desired. We proudly reported our rationally explain nature’s variability. It also
daily take of gamefish to the local newspa- provided even more power to exploit an
pers. The papers published box scores of apparently vast inexhaustible ocean.
the landings to let prospective clients know Newspapers still report daily landings
10 The George Wright Forum
 NPS Centennial Essay

by commercial passenger fishing vessels in for rebuilding the nation’s ocean heritage
southern California. The big difference now (Figure 3).
is that they report the number of mackerel Oceans obscure out-of-sight wild life in
they caught. After 50 years of science-based an alien environment. How do people know
fishery management, we are now proud to what is normal? In an ever-fluctuating envi-
report that we caught the bait. The current ronment, how can we discover what causes
generation of fishermen accepts catching the changes in nature that we experience?
mackerel as normal because it is what they How can we tell if fishing and other con-
first experienced when they discovered the sumptive uses of the sea are sustainable?
ocean, just as I had expected the El Niño Traditionally, we measured what we took
conditions of 1957–59 to continue forever from the sea, and sometimes recorded how
as “normal.” Fishermen discovering the much effort we expended to take it, e.g.,
southern California ocean at the onset of the number of boats or traps or days fishing. We
21st century have set a new baseline, with then used landings and catch rates as indi-
substantially lower expectations of the cations of population change. We assumed
ocean’s bounty than the one my generation that exploited populations remained the
did just a few decades earlier. Such lowered same if landings and catch rates were
expectations aid and abet continued degra- unchanged. This was somewhat akin to
dation of ocean resources. Setting appropri- managing a bank account by monitoring the
ate expectations as a fixed baseline is critical checks written, but never recording the

Figure 3. Twice a day the tide falls in Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, California, opening a
window on the sea for people of all ages to explore nature, and in protected parks to discover how
the coast used to be when their grandparents first saw it. Photo by G.E. Davis, © 2006 G.E. Davis &
Associates.

Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 11

 NPS Centennial Essay

deposits and assuming there were reserves day. He collected hundreds of big fish.
to balance the account. Local fishermen could feed their families
During the 20th century, fishing in the and meet fresh seafood demands of local
ocean continued virtually everywhere tech- resorts using traditional woven arrowhead
nology provided access. The U.S. National traps to catch big predatory fish. Snorkeling
Marine Protected Area Center inventoried in shallow water, they caught spiny lobster
managed areas in U.S. waters and deter- and conch. Fifty years later, fish traps catch
mined that even with 1,688 marine protect- only small herbivores. Mature conch and
ed areas, 99.9% of U.S. territorial waters lobster are rarely seen, even in deep water,
were still available for fishing in 2008.3 As and resorts import frozen seafood from afar.
boats got larger and faster, more remote Now, teams of scientists surveying fish pop-
areas were lost as de facto refugia, sources of ulations in Virgin Islands National Park
replenishment. Any hope of sustaining search for weeks to find a single small
exploited populations rested on fishery grouper.4 Even though the baseline had
constraints exercised through limits on fish- already shifted substantially downward
ing seasons, gear, fish sizes, quotas, and bag from Jack Randall’s experience 30 years
limits. In the oceans, no systems of fully before the current studies began, monitor-
protected areas emerged as they did on land ing fish abundance and size in the park over
to serve as benchmarks by which human the past 20 years revealed continued
behavior could be assessed. declines. Traditional artisanal fishing even-
tually removed most large reef predators
What happened? and grazers, allowing algae to increase and
After decades of research and monitor- compete with corals for light and space.
ing, it became clear that fishery resources in Environmental stress on reef-building
parks were in the same depleted condition corals reached critical limits when ecologi-
as those outside parks. Controlling fishery cal effects of fishing down the food pyramid
take with state regulations and protecting combined with impacts of increased sedi-
habitats and water quality in parks were ments and nutrients in runoff from human-
insufficient to assure sustained populations altered local watersheds (Figure 4). The
and intact ecosystems. Park fisheries col- increased stress appears to have impaired
lapsed widely, from tropical Florida and the the corals’ immune systems and made them
Virgin Islands to temperate seas in Califor- more sensitive to global forces, such as
nia and Alaska. Opportunities were lost to warming sea temperatures. This, in turn,
benefit from fishing, to otherwise enjoy increased the corals’ susceptibility to previ-
unimpaired wild life, and to learn the effects ously unknown diseases. Warm water in
of fishing on ecosystems. 2005 caused nearly 50% of reef corals at
When Jack Randall, a professor at the park study sites to die, some directly from
University of Miami, needed specimens for thermal stress and others from subsequent
his pioneering biological surveys and stud- diseases months later.5 A cascade of these
ies of Virgin Islands National Park and interdependent stress factors further dimin-
Buck Island Reef National Monument in ished reef resilience to normal hurricane
the 1950s and 1960s, he could spear disturbances, exacerbating an already pre-
dozens of large groupers and snappers any carious situation for park reefs. Hundreds
12 The George Wright Forum
 NPS Centennial Essay

Figure 4. Clearly impairment of sea life in parks has reached critical levels when major reef-building
corals, such as elkhorn (Acropora palmate) and staghorn (A. cervicornis), and one-time mainstays of
commercial fisheries, such as white abalone, Haliotis sorenseni, approach extinction and appear on
threatened and endangered species lists. Photo by G.E. Davis, © 2008 G.E. Davis & Associates.

of species of park wild life depend exclu- crossed with boat tracks; the park was los-
sively on these reefs for food, shelter, and ing 1,000 tons of fish, crabs, and lobster
other life essentials. Two major western every year to fishing.7 Fishermen competed
Atlantic reef-building corals, elkhorn and with eagles and crocodiles and with one
staghorn (Acropora palmata and A. cervi- another for what all believed to be diminish-
cornis), were designated “threatened” ing resources. While nearly everyone
under the U. S. Endangered Species Act in agreed resources were declining, none
2006.6 The coral reef chain of life is knew what caused the declines or when
stretched dangerously thin in Virgin Islands they began. Lacking historical data, I inter-
parks, with many links poised to fail. viewed experienced fishers in an attempt to
When Everglades National Park was find a pattern of environmental events to
authorized in 1934, Florida Bay and the help explain the deteriorating conditions.
other ocean waters of the park were true No patterns emerged. No connections
wilderness (634,000 acres), difficult to pen- among hurricanes, real estate development,
etrate and seen only by the heartiest adven- pollution, boat traffic, agriculture, human
turers. By the 1970s the ocean parts of the population growth, park regulations, or
park had become a battleground criss- other events matched the onset of the
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 13
 NPS Centennial Essay

declines all interviewees could so vividly fishery take and resource conditions. In the
recall. The only pattern I found was that the mid-1970s Florida established a spiny lob-
declines seemed to begin, on average, 11 ster sanctuary in the park’s bay waters to
years after the interviewee arrived in South protect juvenile lobsters from fishing-
Florida. Apparently, it took people 11 years induced injuries and mortality, comple-
to notice a shift from their personal base- mented today by similar lobster reserves in
line. Everglades and Dry Tortugas national
Eventually, professional fishing guides parks.9 Reef fisheries in South Florida,
in the Florida Keys petitioned the park to including in the park, have been under
take remedial actions, specifically request- tremendous pressure for the past 50 years.
ing prohibition of commercial fishing. NPS Recreational boat registrations in the region
lacked sufficient ecological knowledge to are now nearly five times what they were
deal with the underlying causes of this situ- when the park was established. Park fish-
ation. Therefore the park addressed only a eries show the strain with signs of impair-
symptom of the stress, competition among ment. An independent analysis in 2002
users—nature, sport fishers, and commer- designed to explore alternative park man-
cial fishers—and reallocated the available agement strategies revealed that 70% of
resources to nature and sport fishers. The exploited species in the park were much
park banned commercial fishing, intro- smaller and overfished, meaning their
duced daily bag limits for sport fishers, pro- spawning capacity was reduced by more
tected stone crabs and spiny lobster, and than 70%. For example, black grouper were
closed sensitive crocodile nesting areas. 60% smaller and had lost 95% of their
These actions delayed the inevitable for 20 spawning potential. Investigators also indi-
years. Decades of altered watershed condi- cated that traditional fishery regulations,
tions eventually combined with physical e.g., sizes and seasons, were not likely to
habitat damage and loss of ecological restore or to sustain fishing as it had been in
integrity from fishing to push Florida Bay the past.10
into a new community state more conducive Patterns of fishery over-exploitation,
to algae and bacteria than bonefish and tar- serial depletion, and cascading ecosystem
pon, and helped precipitate a multibillion- shifts are not limited to warm-water parks.
dollar restoration program.8 Delay born of Giant kelp forests dominate the cool waters
denial and ignorance can be expensive. of Channel Islands National Park, off
Hard by Miami, Florida, to the north, California’s southern coast. Often described
Biscayne National Park affords habitat pro- as rainforests in the sea, these highly pro-
tection to 173,000 acres of unbroken man- ductive communities are home to more than
grove shoreline, tropical lagoon, seagrass 1,000 species. When the park was expand-
beds, shallow patch reefs, and outer coral ed in 1980 from the 1938 national monu-
reef tract, in addition to the northernmost ment boundaries, it was widely recognized
Florida Keys. Commercial and sport fishing as the last, best place in the region to fish
of all kinds have been major activities in the and to see wild life. The park was at the core
park since Biscayne’s inception in 1968. of California’s most valuable fisheries,
Fishing activities have been managed by the including abalone, spiny lobster, red sea
state of Florida, while the park monitored urchin, market squid, and a wide variety of
14 The George Wright Forum
 NPS Centennial Essay

fin fish, including more than 50 species of cascaded through ecosystems, altering sys-
rockfish (Scorpaenidae), California sheep- tem states from diverse, complex, resilient,
head, and lingcod. After more than 20 years and stable to simple, chaotic, and less pro-
of national park protection, 80% of the kelp ductive. Clearly, it is time for a change in
forest was gone; all five abalone fisheries our approach to ocean conservation.
had collapsed serially, with one species On land, people around the world have
(Haliotis sorenseni) now on the federal set aside portions of landscapes as national
endangered species list; and several rock- parks and other designations as wild places.
fish fisheries were closed to prevent popula- These systems of protected areas, as the
tion collapses.11 Reduction of large preda- places most insulated from human pertur-
tors and grazers left smaller species, e.g., bation, complement species-based conser-
purple sea urchins, brittle stars, and sea vation strategies and serve as:
cucumbers, without competition, which
• Benchmarks, dynamic standards, to
allowed their populations to increase rapid-
define normal conditions and ecologi-
ly and over-graze kelp forests. Without kelp
cal integrity (resilience, biodiversity
to provide food and shelter, the entire com-
conservation, and historical fidelity);
munity shifted to bare rock reef. The small
• Sources of replenishment—for both
grazer populations, now stressed from lack
nature and human spiritual values
of food, died back as a result of disease, ini-
(recreation);
tiating a series of abnormal boom and bust
• Foundations of education—stories to
cycles triggered by natural El Niño events.12
tell and lessons to learn about nature;
A similar story is unfolding in the remote
• Common ground that facilitates
vastness of Glacier Bay National Park and
diverse cultures living together peace-
Preserve in Alaska, where salmon and crab
fully; and
fisheries are struggling and park ecosystems
• Means to sustain options for future
are stressed on more than 600,000 acres of
generations to connect with their her-
submerged lands.13
itage.
Hope on the horizon Protecting wild life in analogous desig-
The untested assumptions that ocean nated ocean areas to obtain these values has
vastness and species-based fishing rules yet to be tried. Although special places in
would sustain populations were wrong. As the ocean were included in coastal parks
an unintended consequence, 90% of the and refuges early in the 20th century, sys-
world’s populations of large fishes have tem-wide, place-based conservation first
been depleted to critical levels, fisheries arrived in the ocean in the 1970s, a full cen-
have collapsed, and wild life populations tury after Yellowstone National Park ush-
have been destabilized and threatened with ered in modern place-based, landscape-
extirpation while some species face extinc- scale conservation of terrestrial ecosystems.
tion.14 Not only has fishing reduced popula- Pioneering efforts in systemic place-based
tions, it selectively reduced or removed ocean conservation include the 1975 Great
higher trophic levels from systems. This Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Aus-
“fishing down the food chain” initiated tralia, and the Marine Protection, Research,
additional ecological consequences that and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 (MPRSA, P.L.
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 15
 NPS Centennial Essay

92-532) in the USA which authorized mul- Tortugas, and Everglades national parks
tiple-use national marine sanctuaries. Nev- continue to contribute significantly to the
ertheless, these early efforts still did not success of Florida’s valuable invertebrate
prohibit fishing in the “protected” areas. fisheries.
Today, the major U.S. systems of marine
protected areas, such as national marine Recent lessons from
sanctuaries, wildlife refuges, national parks, fully protected reserves
and estuarine research reserves, still do not Where fishing mortality has been
categorically prohibit taking of fish, shell- reduced, benefits to exploited populations
fish, or plants. and ecosystems in parks accrued quicker
Protection of wild life in special ocean and more dramatically than expected.
places has increased only incrementally for When the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
the last 50 years. At first, small places were was authorized in 1975, only 5% of the park
set aside to allow swimmers safe havens was off-limits to fishing, and because of the
from boats and fishing gear. Places like the park’s size and remoteness, just 5% of the
underwater trails in Trunk Bay and Buck reef was accessible to day visitors. Today,
Island in the U. S. Virgin Islands broke new faster boats make 95% of the reef accessible
ground in the 1950s when they protected to day-trippers and a third of the park now
fish, lobster, conch, and whelk along the protects wild life from fishing. The
trails so visitors could see coral reef inhabi- response of newly protected coral trout sur-
tants. These truly protected zones were prised everyone: in two years trout numbers
generally limited to areas of 10–15 acres. As in reserves went up 36–64%, yet did not
SCUBA diving became popular in the change in nearby fished zones.15 Just three
1960s and 1970s, a few slightly larger areas, years after implementing no-take marine
30–50 acres, were protected in state parks reserves covering nearly 140,000 acres at
like John Pennekamp in Florida and Point Dry Tortugas, Florida, scientists found sig-
Lobos in California to give divers a chance nificantly greater fish abundances and larg-
to experience nature and to separate spear- er fish in the reserves.16 In the five years
fishing from other divers and swimmers. since a network of 10 no-take marine
In a few places, people explored pro- reserves covering a total of 111,276 acres
tected areas as nurseries for exploited around the California Channel Islands was
species or gathering sites for mass spawn- implemented in 2003, kelp forests have
ing. During the 1970s in Florida, a series of expanded more in reserves than outside,
spiny lobster, stone crab, and conch refuges fish and invertebrate species exploited by
were established to protect spawning stocks fishing had greater population densities and
or juveniles. This helped to rebuild and sizes in reserves than outside, while species
sustain those popular fisheries, but did little not taken by fishing remained the same
to ensure ecosystem health. However, these inside and outside reserves.17
species-based, fishery-driven efforts did As park fisheries collapsed and ecosys-
demonstrate the potential value of national tems shifted from complex and productive
parks as sources of replenishment and to simple and barren, opposition to new
benchmarks for evaluating fishery manage- management strategies softened. Larger
ment. Today these refuges in Biscayne, Dry areas in parks (thousands of acres rather
16 The George Wright Forum
 NPS Centennial Essay

than tens of acres) were set aside from fish- century while critical elements of ocean
ing to aid in resource recovery and to park ecosystems remain extant.
rebuild lost fishing opportunities. These I find four basic tenets of park steward-
new reserves revealed amazing resiliency of ship useful to structure the needed changes:
ocean ecosystems, from the coral reefs in
1. Know and understand how park
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Dry
ecosystems work;
Tortugas National Park, and Florida Keys
2. Restore impaired elements of park
National Marine Sanctuary, to the giant kelp
ecosystems and design new func-
forests in Channel Islands National Park
tional systems;
and Channel Islands National Marine Sanc-
3. Protect parks and mitigate threats to
tuary. The consequences of protecting
their integrity, stability, and capacity
ocean wild life in parts of parks and sanctu-
for self-renewal; and
aries are now much clearer. Places in which
4. Connect people emotionally to parks
all wild life is protected from human
and spark public interest to learn
exploitation recover and sustain their eco-
about nature.
logical integrity, stability, and beauty. The
capacity for self-renewal quickly returns in Know and understand. Until we
such places. They begin to contribute to understand better how ocean park ecosys-
regional environmental well-being. The tems work, stewardship will, in effect, be
question we must now confront is, “Why limited to treating symptoms of stress reac-
should fishing continue in special ‘protect- tively. Greater ecological understanding will
ed’ places like national parks?” permit proactive reductions in the causes of
stress, thereby reducing costs and improv-
Time for a change ing the likelihood of successful treatment
and prevention of additional losses. Invest-
How can you tell how it used to be
ments in more knowledge will yield divi-
when there’s nothin’ left to see?
dends in better, faster, and cheaper steward-
Jimmy Buffett, “Prince of Tides”
ship. Knowledge of ocean parks pales in
Over the past century, well-inten- comparison with that of land-locked parks.
tioned, but ill-informed, fishing activities Restore and design. Fixing broken
inadvertently altered the integrity, stability, parts of parks has become a core mission for
and beauty of ocean wild life in national park stewards. Setting goals for desired
parks. It is time to change those uninformed future conditions based on former condi-
policies and practices to incorporate new tions is fraught with uncertainty, and may
information on the widespread effects of well be impossible when species have been
fishing on both exploited species and ocean lost. The 20th-century concept of ecologi-
ecosystems, and to use recent experiences cal restoration that looked backward to set
with fully protected marine reserves to future goals is shifting into a new forward-
improve design of ocean parks. Just as wild- looking paradigm that recognizes the need
fire and predator “control” policies and to design future systems using available
practices in national parks changed with remnants of the past. With increasingly per-
new information in the 20th century, fishing vasive human effects on global environmen-
in ocean parks needs to change in the 21st tal forces, design seems inevitable. How-
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 17
 NPS Centennial Essay

ever, the designs will be constrained heavily ic facts and information about wild life in
by conspicuous limits of human control on the sea is, by itself, insufficient to spark pub-
outcomes and future conditions. Living lic interest and light the fires of education.
with such limits will be a major challenge We need artists to join the fray, as they did
for humans in the 21st century. Parks will in the 19th century. Painters inspired by the
likely be some of the easiest and cheapest Hudson River School conveyed the gran-
places to learn those lessons. deur of western landscapes to an American
Protect and mitigate. Fully protecting populace confined to the eastern seaboard
all wild life in ocean parks is essential to by limited transportation and communica-
comply with the 1916 National Park Ser- tion technologies. The artists created
vice Organic Act and to make the parks sweeping tableaux on huge canvasses that
whole. Annually removing thousands of still hang in the halls of Congress, the White
tons of fish, invertebrates, and plants House, and museums in eastern cities.
remains the greatest threat to ocean park These artistic renderings of nature inspired
integrity, stability, and capacity for self- Americans to join in an expression of their
renewal, i.e., environmental health. best idea—a system of special places pro-
Connect and educate. The public tected so that all could enjoy the nation’s
needs to feel connected to out-of-sight, out- shared heritage (Figure 5). Today’s tech-
of-mind, seemingly alien life forms in the nologies afford even more capacity to touch
sea, and understand that people are also diverse audiences and inspire them to take
interdependent parts of ocean communi- the next steps to effectively sustain and
ties. If they do not, essential parts of ocean extend the park system into ocean realms.
parks will be lost forever. With such losses, Indeed, Jean-Michel Cousteau’s beautiful
people everywhere will be forced to forego and moving film Voyage to Kure triggered
opportunities for sustained human health President Bush’s recent decision to estab-
and well-being. I believe compiling scientif- lish Papahanaumokuakea Marine National

Figure 5. People have used abalone (large marine snails, Haliotis spp.), for food, utensils, and jewel-
ry for thousands of years. This wall-sized, stylized shell in Nanaimo, British Columbia, symbolizes the
powerful bonds people forge between art and nature. Photo by G.E. Davis, © 2007 G.E. Davis &
Associates.

18 The George Wright Forum

 NPS Centennial Essay

Monument, with encouragement by straight Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and in

talk from Sylvia Earle and other ocean advo- California’s Channel Islands National Park
cates.18 and Channel Islands National Marine Sanc-
Today, we labor under a tyranny of tuary. The ecological concepts are now well
diluted words and euphemisms. Special known and tested. The current challenge is
places labeled “national parks,” “sanctuar- applying what is known to policy and prac-
ies,” and “refuges” do not offer protection, tice through political processes.
sanctuary, or refuge for wild life. We
describe taking and exploitation of ocean Inspire the next generation to do more
park wild life as “harvest” as if a crop were I know from personal experience that
planted, tended, and gathered. Fish killed fishing can forge powerful, life-long bonds
and removed from parks are labeled “land- to nature. Perhaps the greatest challenge
ings,” and fish taken from the sea become facing ocean park stewards today is engag-
“yield” as if they were interest on an invest- ing sport fishing communities to search for
ment we made. We must acknowledge we new strategies that will restore and sustain
are at the end of millennia of human “hunt- integrity, productivity, and capacity for self-
ing and gathering” in the sea, and begin to renewal of ocean parks. People in these
recognize that the future is one of steward- communities have the greatest potential for
ship in which we invest, tend, and care for understanding what is at risk and the values
wild life in the sea. Those special places we to be gained by changing current human
recognize as critical to preserving our behavior in the sea. Yet continued denial
shared ocean heritage should be first among that sport fishing contributes to deteriorat-
equals. ing conditions of ocean park resources will
doom timely restoration efforts politically
Recovery is still possible and result in Pyrrhic victories when remedi-
National parks in the sea reside at the al actions are finally taken, too little and too
confluence of human interests with coastal late.
watersheds and the ocean. Understanding To preserve options for future genera-
ocean ecosystems gives people hope for tions of humans to enjoy unimpaired wild
rebuilding depleted resources; for restoring life in ocean national parks (Figure 6), we
integrity, stability, and beauty of degraded must now: (1) care for all wild life in exist-
ecosystems; and for returning capacity for ing ocean parks by extending the same pro-
self-renewal to intact ecosystems. Just as tections national parks afford life on land to
returning wild wolves to Yellowstone Na- life in the sea; (2) make coastal parks eco-
tional Park restored ecological integrity, logically whole by adding submerged lands
when fishing was curtailed in existing adjacent to coastal watersheds in those
marine protected areas, populations of fish places where park boundaries stop at the
and invertebrates rebounded swiftly. This water line or reach less than a mile from
positive and hopeful response to protection shore, effectively denying park wild life
has been witnessed and documented care- access to critical habitat; and (3) join efforts
fully in many places, including Australia’s of the national park system, NOAA sanctu-
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, in Florida’s aries and estuarine research reserves, the
Dry Tortugas National Park and Florida U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service national wild-
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 19
 NPS Centennial Essay

Figure 6. Coastal waters offer park visitors access to explore alien realms and to discover nature on
their own terms in ways that are difficult to imagine on land. Photo by G.E. Davis, © 2006 G.E. Davis
& Associates.

life refuge system, states, territories, and the gaps in biogeographic and functional
tribes to design and implement a coopera- designations needed to meet the nation’s
tive national system of marine protected needs.
areas that builds on existing sites and fills

Endnotes
1. National Park System Advisory Board, Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st
Century, J.H. Franklin, chair (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001).
2. J.D. Varley and P. Schullery, “Yellowstone Lake and Its Cutthroat Trout,” in Science and
Ecosystem Management in the National Parks, W.L. Halvorson and G.E. Davis, eds.
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 1996), pp. 49–73; W. Jennings, “Florida Keys
Tarpon,” Fly Fisherman (2008), on-line at http://flyfisherman.com/florida/wjfloridatar-
pon/index.html; L.D. Zeidberg, W.M. Hamner, N.P. Nezlin, and A. Henry, “The Fish-
ery for California Market Squid (Loligo opalescens) (Cephalopoda: Myopsida), from
1981 through 2003,” Fishery Bulletin 104 (2006), pp. 46–59.
3. National Marine Protected Areas Center, The State of U.S. Marine Managed Areas: West
Coast, L. Wooninck and R. Grober-Dunsmore, eds. (Silver Spring, Md.: NOAA, 2008).
20 The George Wright Forum
 NPS Centennial Essay

On-line at http://mpa.gov/helpful_resources/inventoryfiles/wcoast_mma_report-
0608.pdf.
4. A. Friedlander and J. Beets, Temporal Trends in Reef Fish Assemblages inside Virgin
Islands National Park and around St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, 1988–2006, NOAA
Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 70 (2008).
5. J. Miller, R. Waara, E, Muller, and C. Rogers, “Coral Bleaching and Disease Combine to
Cause Extensive Mortality on Reefs in U.S. Virgin Islands,” Coral Reefs 25 (2006), p.
418.
6. See www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/invertebrates/elkhorncoral.htm.
7. G.E. Davis, “Fishery Management Conflicts in Everglades National Park,” In Marine
Recreational Fisheries, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Marine Recreational Fisheries
Symposium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 10–11, 1982, R.H. Stroud, ed. (Washing-
ton, D.C.: Sport Fishing Institute,) pp. 65–75; G.E. Davis, An Assessment of Fishery
Management Options in Everglades National Park, Florida, National Park Service
South Florida Research Center Technical Report T-523 (1979).
8. J.W. Fourqurean and M.B. Robblee, “Florida Bay: A History of Recent Ecological
Changes—Estuaries,” in SeaGrant Florida, Florida Bay Science Conference Proceedings
22:2B (1999), 345–357, on-line at www.floridabay.org/pub/conf_proceedings/in-
dex.shtml; Committee on Independent Scientific Review of Everglades Restoration
Progress (CISRERP), National Research Council of the National Academies, Progress
toward Restoring the Everglades: The First Biennial Review, 2006 (published 2007),
on-line at www.evergladesplan.org/index.aspx.
9. G.E. Davis, “Spiny Lobsters as Flagship Species for Marine Ecosystems,” Wings (fall
2004), pp. 16–19. (Published by the Xerces Society.)
10. J.S. Ault, S.G. Smith, G.A. Meester, J. Luo, and J.A. Bohnsack, Site Characterization for
Biscayne National Park: Assessment of Fisheries and Habitats, NOAA Technical Memo-
randum NMFS-SEFSC-468 (2001).
11. G.E. Davis, P. L. Haaker, and D.V. Richards, “The Perilous Condition of White Aba-
lone, Haliotis sorenseni,” Journal of Shellfish Research 17:3 (1998), pp. 871–875.
12. M.D. Behrens and K.D. Lafferty, Effects of Marine Reserves and Urchin Disease on
Southern California Rocky Reef Communities, Marine Ecology Progress Series 279
(2004), pp. 129–139; Davis et al, “The Perilous Condition of White Abalone,” pp.
871–875.
13. For a brief history of Glacier Bay fisheries issues, see www.nps.gov/archive/glba/in-
depth/learn/preserve/issues/fish/history.htm.
14. D. Pauly, V. Christensen, J. Dalsgaard, R. Froese, and F. Torres, Jr., “Fishing Down
Marine Food Webs,” Science 279 (1998), pp. 860–863; J.B.C. Jackson et al., “Historical
Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems,” Science 293 (2001), pp.
629–638; V. Christensen et al., “Hundred-year Decline of North Atlantic Predatory
Fishes,” Fish and Fisheries 4 (2003), pp. 1–24; R.A. Myers and B. Worm, “Rapid
Worldwide Depletion of Predatory Fish Communities,” Nature 423 (2003), pp.
280–283.
15. G.R. Russ, A.J. Cheal, A.M. Dolman, M.J. Emslie, R.D. Evans, I. Miller, H. Sweatman,
Volume 25 • Number 3 (2008) 21
 NPS Centennial Essay

and D.H. Williamson, “Rapid Increase in Fish Numbers Follows Creation of World’s
Largest Marine Reserve Network,” Current Biology 18 (June 24, 2008), pp. R514–
R515.
16. J.S. Ault, S.G. Smith, J.A. Bohnsack, J. Luo, D.E. Harper, and D.B. McClellan, “Build-
ing Sustainable Fisheries in Florida’s Coral Reef Ecosystem: Positive Signs in the Dry
Tortugas,” Bulletin of Marine Science 78:3 (2006), pp. 633–654.
17. California Department of Fish and Game, Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of
Coastal Oceans, Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and Channel Islands Na-
tional Park, Channel Islands Marine Protected Areas: First 5 Years of Monitoring (2008).
18. At the June 6, 2006, signing of the national monument proclamation, President Bush
said, “I think the American people will understand better about why I made the deci-
sion I made when they see the movie that Jean-Michel has produced.” See www.white-
house.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060615-6.html.

Gary E. Davis recently retired from the U.S. National Park Service after a long and distin-
guished career as a marine scientist. He is also a past president of the George Wright Society.

Join the Centennial conversation!

Do you have a comment on the ideas presented in this essay? Ideas of your own to share?
Whether it be criticism, praise, or something in between, we want to hear your thoughts
on the National Park Service, its centennial, and the future of America’s national park
system. Write us at nps2016@georgewright.org and we’ll post your comments on our
NPS Centennial Essay Series webpage (www.georgewright.org/nps2016.html).

22 The George Wright Forum