UC Marine Scientists Work With State Agencies To Address Coastal Issues

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The University of California, in close consultation with state agencies, has launched a new research program to help solve the major management problems facing California’s 1,100-mile coastline. Coastal issues covered by the program include coastal water quality, fisheries, marine ecosystems, and shoreline erosion.

The research program, known as the Coastal Environmental Quality Initiative, provides $1.5 million per year for research to assist the state in its efforts to protect and manage California’s spectacular ocean and coastal resources.

"The University of California has an important role to play in helping the state address environmental problems in the coastal region, which is so critical to the California economy. Research funded by the UC Coastal Environmental Quality Initiative will help meet the information needs of the state agencies responsible for managing our valuable coastal resources," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson.

The UC Marine Council, which administers the program, consulted with representatives of the state Resources Agency to establish research priorities for the initiative.

"Over the years, many of our coastal wetlands have been filled, coastal water quality has been compromised, shoreline erosion has increased, and some of our coastal fisheries are collapsing," said Mary Nichols, California resources secretary. "In all cases, we improve our chances of protecting these resources if we arm ourselves with the best scientific information available."

The dependence of the California economy on its marine resources is often underappreciated, said Gary Griggs, chair of the UC Marine Council and director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. A 1994 study sponsored by the Resources Agency concluded that seven ocean-dependent industries contributed more than $17 billion to the state’s economy annually, equivalent to the income generated by agriculture. The productivity and sustainability of these industries is threatened, however, by impacts on the coastal environment from California’s growing population, Griggs said.

"Human activities in California have led to significant modifications of the coastal zone’s ecological systems, seriously impacting their ability to sustain themselves," he said.

Griggs noted that 75 percent of California’s 33.5 million people live within 50 miles of the coast. The environmental consequences of this include degraded coastal water quality, contaminated sediments, and destruction of wetlands and other critical habitats for fish and wildlife. Dredging of the state’s six major ports, through which 95 percent of our foreign trade must pass, is increasingly restricted due to contaminated sediments. Many of the state’s fisheries have collapsed and species that were once economically valuable are now threatened or endangered.

"We see the warning signs–the closed fishing seasons, the listing of endangered species, the posted beaches–but we don’t have a comprehensive picture of the magnitude of these problems," Griggs said. "We need a better understanding of how the coastal environment functions and how human activity has affected this zone so we can develop effective and informed environmental policy."

Research is needed that not only increases scientific understanding of natural processes and human-induced changes, but also provides information that is directly useful to resource managers, policy makers, and legislators, he added.

The initiative is designed to encourage academic researchers to undertake research projects that specifically address the needs of state officials and others who must make management decisions about coastal resources. Managers are often frustrated when they look for scientific research findings to guide their decisions, said Brian Baird, manager of the California Resources Agency’s ocean program.

"This initiative is a real opportunity for us to get some of the best marine research institutions in the country working on our most pressing marine management problems," Baird said. "We need help in answering key questions such as whether it is safe to swim or eat fish, and whether coastal erosion will threaten public facilities and private homes."

Griggs said he envisions a systematic and long-term assessment of representative indicators of environmental health in the coastal zone. This might include monitoring and assessing trends in the populations of threatened marine mammals; trends in catch statistics for sardines, salmon, abalone, and sea urchins; incidents of beach closures and trends in water-quality indicators; frequency of harmful algal blooms and their effects on the marine food chain; and patterns of shoreline erosion and beach-sand reduction.

The initiative will also involve social scientists and policy researchers in an effort to strengthen the links between scientific research and the development of environmental policy.

"We need a more effective way to integrate the efforts of researchers and policy makers," Griggs said. "Without such coordinated work, we will be unable to understand the problems we face, let alone solve them. We will find ourselves, not so many years from now, faced with truly unsolvable environmental problems that we failed to address while they were still manageable."