Port Orford Ocean Resource Team:

Partnering Local and Scientific Knowledge

With GIS for Community-based
Management

Vicki A. Wedell, Oregon State University

David Revell, University of California Santa Cruz

AAAS Annual Meeting Feb 13th 2004

 Today’s Presentation
Background
 Physical setting
 Management Context
 The Port of Port Orford
 Port Orford Ocean Resource Team

Participatory GIS Research Design and Methods

 Local knowledge interviews
 Data Aggregation
 Initial results
 Conclusions
 Port Orford...
Latitude/Longitude: 42 44 45 N / 124 29 46 W
Cape Blanco
Coos Bay
Charleston
Oregon
Port Orford
Bandon

Port Orford Dock Port Orford

Gold Beach www.pcouncil.org

Active Tectonics Lab, OSU

 Current Management Context
 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act
(MSFCMA)
 Standard 8: we must assess impacts
to fishing communities
 Issue of scale

 Pacific groundfish crisis

(NOAA Fisheries Jan 2000)
 Quota reductions Port Orford
 50% capacity reduction
 100-250 fathom in-season shelf
closure
 The Port Orford Fishing Community
 Small scale fishing-dependant community
 ~40 vessels (<45 feet)
 100-150 people involved in commercial fishing (10-
15% of population)
 40 fishing families
 No Coast Guard Station
Diversity of Fisheries
21
19
17
Number of Fishermen

15
13
11
9

73% of interviewees 7

participate in 4-7
5
3

different fisheries
1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of fisheries executed
 Current Fisheries Executed
Port Orford Fisheries

100.0%
90.0% 81.8%
90.9%
Changes caused by Mgt. Regulations
80.0% 72.7%
70.0% 63.6%
60.0%
50.0% 45.5%
36.4%
40.0%
30.0%
18.2% 18.2%
20.0%
10.0% 4.5% 4.5% 4.5%
0.0%
0.0%
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 Port Orford Ocean Resources Team
(POORT)
 Local Advisory Board
 Science Advisory Committee
 Project Manager
 Communications Coordinator
 The key to our success!

POORT Vision: A sustainable fishery that combines

the best science and local experiential knowledge for
the community to make local fishery management
decisions.
 From Vision to Results…
Science and Management ?s
Spatial data to answer ?s

Existing New

Substrate Basemaps Interviews Coop. Research

Fish Counts
Urchins Biological Socio-econ.

Etc…
 ODFW Nearshore Rocky Reef
http://www.coastalatlas.net Project (1997-2000)

Some Coastal Atlas layers… 1996 ODFW Fish Survey

Seafloor Mapping Lab, OSU NOAA Nautical Charts

 Groundfish Fleet Restructuring and
Information Analysis Project

High resolution case

GIS Layers
study of Port Orford

Conceptual
Model
 Documenting Local Knowledge
Pilot interview Validation Community
and community interviews with validation
presentation participants workshop

Create Conduct Transcribe Aggregate Incorporate

base maps LKI with and digitize individual edits and create
and community individual maps into final inventory
interview members interviews draft maps
protocol inventory
In progress
GIS base maps: communication
& process tool

 Nautical charts
 Fathom contours
 Local place names
–focus group
Local knowledge interviews

 Confidentiality Agreements
 Semi-structured interviews
1. Demographics & vessel information
2. Distribution of human uses
3. Relative economic importance
4. Distribution of species and resources
5. Open microphone
 Location information recorded
 Drew on acetate overlays
 Verbally referenced place name
 Depth delineated areas
 LKI Participants
33 interviews with 36 people
24 Commercial fishermen 2 Divers
3 Recreational fishermen 3 Buyers
4 Recreationalists 2 Scientists

Average age: 51 years

Average experience: 20+ years
31 males: 5 females
 Port Orford commercial fishermen
~50% Port Orford vessels represented, average length: 34 feet

17 owners and/or captains

7 deckhands
524 years combined experience
24 years average experience

7 second-generation fishermen
1 third generation fisherman

20/25 work a combined total of over 2200 days/year on the ocean,

presently averaging ~120 days/year
 Data aggregation
 Convert vector data into 30 m grid
 Assigned grid cell value of 1 for polygon
presence and 0 for absence
 Cumulative totals for each grid cell

 Nearest neighbor analysis (6 cell focal mean)

to smooth the data.
 Data classified using an equal area distribution
of 7 classes and re-categorized into Low,
Medium, and High usage.

Thanks to our partners at Ecotrust, especially Charles!

Dungeness crab

PO
Salmon

PO
 Halibut

High Spot

PO
 Sablefish (aka black cod)

Bandon
High Spot

PO

Canyon
Relative economic importance of sablefish

High Spot

Canyon
 Conclusions
To meet requirements of the Sustainable Fisheries Act 1996 Standard 8,
we need to address community issues at the community level. It comes
down to a matter of scale. For Port Orford 150m is appropriate.
Local
knowledge interviews are a successful tool to understand a fishing
community, its resources, and dependence on various areas.
Coupling scientific and local knowledge in GIS is a powerful way to
support community management objectives.
Spatial representation of human uses, economic dependence, and species
distribution can guide area-based management strategies including: local
area management and/or the selection of less controversial areas for MPAs.
 Next Steps for POORT
Phase II
1) More in depth economic surveys and
spatial analysis
2) Cooperative research projects: port
sampling and genetic research
Future Phases:
1) Develop a management plan and
long-term monitoring program
2) Examine Substrate/Species
Relationships
 Thank You
Funders: Partners:
Cooperative Institute for Marine  Port Orford Ocean Resources Team
Resources Studies  Port Orford Community
Environmental Defense  Terra Cognita – OSU GIS lab
NOAA Cooperative Research  Pacific Marine Conservation Council

Penny Family Fund  Surfrider Foundation

Oregon Coastal Management Program

Ocean Enhancement Grant

Data:
 ODFW
 Coastal Atlas
 Dr. Chris Goldfinger Lab – OSU
 Ecotrust