It's all about your network: Using ROVs to assess Marine Protected Area effectiveness

California implemented the State's first network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within the nearshore waters of the northern Channel Islands in 2003. These protections serve as a tool to help ensure the long-term sustainability of marine populations and act as a living laboratory to better understand outside impacts on marine life. California's network operates synergistically to meet the objectives that a single reserve might not. In 2006 and 2007, NOAA expanded this network of thirteen MPAs into the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary's deeper waters, at the time, making them the largest integrated system of MPAs of the continental United States. Historically, marine habitats around the Channel Islands were well surveyed by scuba divers to a depth of 20 meters, but the deeper waters remained poorly studied. Together, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE) developed a long-term Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) program to monitor the changes these MPAs show over time. ROV configuration, survey design and protocols, as well as data post processing and analysis techniques, were developed to specifically evaluate how marine populations respond to the establishment of a network of MPAs.