Protecting Corals, Saving Ships

1.   In the last quarter of FY 2005, significant progress was made with respect to the classification of Marine Information Objects (MIOs), which is the general data classification for corals and related environmental features. A teleconference was held in August followed by a face-to-face meeting in September between the Protecting Corals, Saving Ships project team and the team from the MPA Center in Monterey, CA, working on a similar project for the U.S. Coast Pilot. This meeting was called to share the goals of the two projects, but more importantly, to explore areas of cooperation. As a number of objectives are common to both projects, especially the significant task of classifying MIOs into a scheme, it was important to share the approaches taken by the respective teams to address this task. The classification scheme is a necessary required step in order to properly encode the data for use and proper display in an electronic chart system. A logical classification and coding system will prove advantageous since plans are to internationalize our efforts.

2.   Existing international and national classification schemes developed to date were discussed noting advantages and disadvantages of each. This included systems used by International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the World Conservation Union (formerly the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) (IUCN) on the international level; and the US-NOAA, Australian, and Cuban systems on the national levels. The need for proper data coding (required objects/attributes) for display as MIOs was emphasized. It was agreed that it is preferable to base our system on an already recognized national and/or international classification scheme (e.g., IUCN and IHO). Once determined, the next steps are to decide what type and/or amount of information (e.g., level of detail) are required to develop a Marine Information Object (MIO) for Coral Reef habitats and which classification scheme(s) to utilize.

3.   After considerable discussion on how to classify MIOs, it was determined that two primary categories come into play in the Protecting Corals scenario: biological, and regulatory. The regulatory category has already been developed earlier this year through the efforts of the Sanctuaries Advisory Council. It was further noted that the system under consideration by the MPA Center is similar to the one developed by IUCN, (The World Conservation Union), which has six areas into which these information objects will be designated; Primary Conservation Focus, Level of Protection Afforded, Permanence of Protection, Constancy of Protection, Ecological Scale of Protection and Level of Fisheries Management.

4.   It was also determined that the best/logical approach for classifying MPAs would be to develop a new object class in the internationally recognized (International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S-57) format with appropriate attributes. However it was also recognized that using new object classes would not conform to the current edition of IHO S-57 (Standard3.1), but that they could be included in Edition 4 that is planned for 2008.

5.   Some of the existing classification schemes of the IMO, IHO, IUCN, and our internal NOAA national scheme were further explored. One of the major points or conclusions made while discussing this topic was that the “functional criteria were more important than the name or proper name” for any given MPA. This was due primarily because names are often programmatic labels (e.g., due to political/policy considerations). Also, similar names in different countries or states may have entirely different definitions or designations.

6.   The MPA Center presented their proposed classification system. A notable and very desirable aspect of this system is that it is intended to be complimentary to (not in place of) the IUCN system. It basically couples the U.S. (NOAA) classification system with the IUCN system. Ideally, this system will be more acceptable on a global basis since it is based on functional criteria (see paragraph above), rather than on the designated name. The positive aspect about this approach was made obvious as some of the South Florida managed areas were examined where similar names had different definitions and different applications with varying restrictions. Thus, the conclusion was reached that the use of the US (NOAA/IUCN) classification scheme seems to be a reasonable approach to follow.

7.   With a special focus on S-57 and the object class and how MIOs can be accommodated, it was decided to develop a MIO for Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) given that this is the highest level of “special area” recognized by IMO, and therefore needs to be accommodated in the classification scheme. In terms of producing a new IHO S-57 Object Class for PSSA (and MPAs) there are at least three attribute categories:

a.   Biological

b.   Regulatory

c.   Functional (classification)

For now, IHO will be adopting a short-term approach to deal with PSSAs using existing S-57 objects and attributes. A longer-term approach is to have MPAs become a new object class.