A global regulation-based tool for marine protection assessments and planning for 100% of our ocean

Marine regulations can be a maze: different rules, overlapping protections, and gaps that aren’t always clear. ProtectedSeas Navigator helps make sense of it all by pulling together this information into one global platform. While hundreds of nations have committed to the global 30x30 target, much work remains not only to reach that goal, but to also sustainably manage the remaining 70%. Regulatory protections are crucial for marine management efficacy, and accurate data on in-place management measures are essential for assessing existing marine protections and informing the creation of new areas. However, collecting and interpreting marine regulations can be challenging due to often unavailable or difficult-to-access legal instruments. Overlapping measures and siloed management add further complexities.

ProtectedSeas Navigator contains data on worldwide regulations for MPAs, fishery management areas, and other place-based marine managed areas (MMAs), including site-specific information for each boundary, bringing much-needed transparency to understanding existing ocean management. It includes regulations for over 22,000 marine areas in more than 200 countries including MPAs and potential OECMs like fisheries management areas. 

Using Navigator, we assessed regulatory data cumulatively across overlapping areas using spatial aggregation techniques to provide insights into overall protection of ocean spaces achieved through overlapping jurisdictions. We will present multiple case studies from this analysis to illustrate how a more holistic view of ocean management reveals both hidden gaps and hidden strengths in protection.

For example, in a hex grid analysis of Mexican marine waters, Navigator found up to 13 more MMAs in any given ocean space hex cell, compared to the areas available in the World Database on Protected Areas. But, based on this analysis, only roughly 47% of the ocean area within MPAs in Mexico were found to be highly protected from fishing, demonstrating a large variability of legal protections that exist within these MPAs. When looking at legal marine protections in the Mexican ocean area outside of MPAs, a small area was found to be highly protected from fishing through overlapping MMAs, including vessel restricted areas. 

Analyses in U.S. marine waters revealed several ocean spaces where individual place-based marine protections were minimal, yet when combined with protections from other overlapping managed areas, resulted in more highly regulated spaces with enhanced protection compared to some official MPAs.

More accurate evaluations of in-place marine protections, cumulatively across ocean spaces, allows the conservation community and management agencies to have a more comprehensive and multi-jurisdictional view of spatial management and work toward sustainable management of their entire ocean space, while also meeting global conservation targets.