“(McClintock) has built an important platform,” said Staci Lewis, who leads MPA management in the state through the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), which plans to launch SeaSketch California on March 13. The public is invited to check out the collaborative marine spatial planning tool at (link). “This is an academic-state-public partnership for a transparent, science-based participatory process.”
Those who were around for the initial establishment of the California MPAs a decade ago may find the platform familiar; it is based on MarineMap, an earlier iteration of SeaSketch that pioneered the use of real-time mapping and feedback to capture and comment on proposed MPAs.
“A user of the tool would post their idea into a forum and then the members of the California Fish and Game Commission, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and in fact members of the public can see that suggestion and take it into consideration,” McClintock explained. “They could take that idea and then apply that to the entire network and see how it could change levels of protection for different habitats in the entire network as well as in that particular zone.” For this round of review, the agencies will be evaluating a set of petitions that could modify the boundaries and uses of existing MPAs. SeaSketch California would allow the participants to visualize these changes and how they align with critical scientific guidelines and habitat protection goals.
“SeaSketch California opens the door to accessibility and inclusivity,” said CDFW environmental scientist Kara Gonzales, “and it’s a way to get the public to the table.”
While California may be the first user (via MarineMap) of this open-source marine spatial planning tool, it is not the only one. SeaSketch has been deployed around the world to assist the governments in Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Azores, Brazil, Belize, Maldives and Bermuda engage in marine spatial planning, given their unique constraints, opportunities and priorities. McClintock has also been working in Argentina and Uruguay to familiarize stakeholders and agencies there with participatory planning processes that can be enabled by the platform.
However, California could be the true test of the open-source marine spatial planning tool and the public participation it enables.
“I work all over the world,” McClintock said, “and there’s no other place where stakeholders are as strongly opinionated as they are here.”