OREGON COUNCIL OF ROCK AND MINERAL CLUBS - Marine Reserve & Marine Protected Areas

The State of Oregon has been engaged in a process to consider marine reserves and protected areas along its coast for the past few years.

A Marine Reserve is defined as an area within Oregon's Territorial Sea or adjacent rocky inter-tidal area that is protected from all extractive activities, including the removal or disturbance of living and non-living marine resources, except as necessary for monitoring or research to evaluate reserve condition, effectiveness, or impact of stressors.
A Marine Protected Area is defined as an area of the marine environment that has been reserved by the state to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.

Jurisdiction over these areas is assigned to:

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department
Oregon Department of State Lands
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Proposed Otter Rock Marine Reserve.

These marine reserves and marine protected area designations can be considered analogous to a wilderness or protected area land use designations. Initially, six areas were recommended as potential sites for marine reserves. However, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department selected only two areas (Otter Rock north of Newport and Redfish Rocks near Port Orford) as pilot projects.

Proposed Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve & Marine Protected Area.

Callout Legends

The current proposal allows for a maximum of nine possible sites - from those that are proposed for evaluation - to be designated as marine reserves.

Typically, the marine reserve or marine protected areas begin at the Extreme Low Water Line (ELWL - see the Boundary Points descriptions above), which is generally seaward of the ordinary low tide line and does not include the sandy shoreline. The exception to this rule is when the area includes an adjacent rocky inter-tidal zone - as with northeast corner of the proposed Otter Rock area. With few exceptions for things like research, removing or damaging natural materials (rocks, plants, animals or any other natural object) would not be allowed in the rocky inter-tidal areas.

Collecting along the sandy portions of the shore line may continue as before. Oregon's coastline has approximately 82 linear miles of rocky inter-tidal habitat. This amounts to only 21% of Oregon's coastline. It's highly unlikely that all of those 82 miles of coastline will be included in a reserve so it will be important to monitor the future designation of marine reserves and marine protected areas to determine if an area includes a rocky inter-tidal zone.

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Page updated: June 17, 2010.
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