The Marine Mammal Management Toolkit: A tool for MPA managers and policy makers

Marine mammals play a crucial role in marine ecosystem function and provide valuable ecosystem services alongside providing significant economic, social and cultural benefits to coastal communities. Historically marine mammals have been severely impacted through human activity. While international efforts to protect marine mammals has seen some populations recover, hazards remain such as incidental by-catch, entanglement, ship strikes/collisions with ships, including in-direct habitat destruction, prey removal and noise pollution. With the continued threats to marine mammals, compounded by the detrimental effects of climate change, there is a real need for effective conservation measures. One of the most common approaches is the use of Marine Protected Areas (MPA). However, in many cases, the success of an MPA is drastically hindered through a lack of resources, capacity and/or knowledge to effectively implement management practices. To tackle these threats, to fill knowledge gaps and to empower practitioners, managers, and policy makers to effectively conserve marine mammals, the Marine Mammal Twinning has designed and created a toolkit for the inclusion of marine mammals into MPA, and other, management plans on an international scale. In addition, the Marine Mammal Twinning aims to build the technical capacities of MPA managers by sharing knowledge, expertise and good practises as well as creating a network of peers, that could aid other MPA managers. In order to drive the strong management of marine mammals, the Marine Mammal Management Toolkit contains three key components: factsheets; Self-Assessment Tool (SAT); and good practices. Factsheets: There are 23 available factsheets within the toolkit that span five critical themes that are often experienced by MPA managers, policy makers and practitioners: Management Frameworks; Addressing Activities and Threats; Research and Monitoring; Outreach and Engagement; and Management Effectiveness. Each factsheet is continually evolving along with the evolution of science concerning marine mammal conservation, ensuring that each factsheets incorporates international best practice, case studies and the latest scientific information. Self-Assessment Tool: The toolkit hosts a Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) that enables MPA managers, stakeholders and other relevant parties to assess the extent to which marine mammals are included in their respective management plans. The SAT is accessible via an interactive Excel file, and online web-based version, that guides the assessor through a range of questions that are intrinsically linked to the core themes of the factsheets. As assessors navigate through the SAT, each answer is graded and upon completion, a dashboard presents a range of results that unlocks the ability of managers to adapt and monitor the MPA in each core theme alongside a breakdown of the individual threats that are being well-managed or require attention. The SAT has been designed to be a continuous process, facilitating the monitoring and evaluation over time of the MPA. Good Practices: The Good Practices have been designed to present key examples of good practices implemented throughout MPAs and the marine environment concerning marine mammal management, MPA design and impact mitigation and monitoring. Each good practice is available to download and applied in-situ or utilised as a resource in capacity building events or workshops.