The grants are part of the North Coast Marine Protected Area (MPA) Baseline Program, which supports the collection of ecological and socioeconomic information on beaches, reefs and ecosystems on the North Coast. Principal investigators on seven of the ten projects are HSU faculty members, and several other faculty members will contribute in key investigator roles. Numerous HSU students are also involved.
“Our goal is to protect these areas, to decrease instinction, and maintain populations of commercially popular fish so that fisheries can remain open,” said Zoology Professor Sean Craig, a recipient of one of the grants.
The goal of the MPA program is to establish benchmarks for measuring the performance of the region’s new marine protected areas from an ecological and socioeconomic perspective. California Sea Grant administers the program with MPA Monitoring Enterprise, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Ocean Protection Council.