Meeting Abstract

81-2  Monday, Jan. 6 08:15 – 08:30  Incorporating the movement of Marine Megafauna is critical to developing appropriate marine protected areas COSTA, D.P*; HUCKSTADT, L.A; University of California at Santa Cruz; University of California at Santa Cruz costa@ucsc.edu http://costa.eeb.ucsc.edu/

Movement patterns of marine megafauna vary broadly, from species that are highly resident moving no more than tens of kilometers over their lifetime, to species that migrate over tens of thousands of kilometers each year. Marine Protected Areas have been proposed as a conservation tool for protection. However, while the characteristics of MPAs appropriate for marine invertebrate species has been considered, the issues surrounding the development of MPAs for highly migratory species is only just being considered The potential risk (sensitivity and exposure) to individuals within a population will vary in response to how they move in space and time. Some species move throughout their species range whereas others cover only a very small proportion of the species range. Some highly migratory species have foraging areas that are spatially distinct from their breeding areas, which are then connected by migration. Movement patterns are therefore critical to provide insight into the proportion of the population that would be protected within a specific MPA and which activity (i.e., feeding, migrating, and breeding) would be protected.