DRAFT i 

A CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM FOR MARINE PROTECTED AREAS 

IN THE UNITED STATES: 

A Tool To Understand What We Have And What We May Need 

National Marine Protected Areas Center 

January 2004 

SIMPLIFYING THE VARIETY OF MARINE PROTECTED AREAS 

Faced with widespread declines in ocean health, many nations are turning to marine protected areas (MPAs) to 

protect their most important marine habitats and species. Familiar examples of MPAs in the U.S. include national 

marine sanctuaries, parks and wildlife refuges, fisheries closures, and many state parks and conservation areas. 

Although MPAs have long been used as a management tool by federal and state resource agencies, the nation still 

lacks a consistent and straightforward language to describe the many types of MPAs occurring in our waters or to 

understand how they affect marine ecosystems and associated human uses. 

For example, the official programmatic names of many U.S. MPAs rarely reflect their actual purpose, level of 

protection, use restrictions or impacts on users and resources. Consequently, MPAs having similar names (e.g. 

“reserves”, “parks”, “sanctuaries”) may, in fact, differ fundamentally in their effectiveness in protecting the habitats 

and resources they encompass. A frequent manifestation of the ambiguity in MPA terminology is the misperception 

that all MPAs are “no take” areas, which are, in fact, extremely uncommon in the U.S. 

The growing confusion over MPA terminology continues to complicate the critically important national dialogue 

about whether, when and how to use this promising management tool to sustain the health of the nation’s seas. In 

response, the National Marine Protected Areas Center has developed a functional classification system for MPAs 

that provides agencies and stakeholders with a simple and objective means to understand, describe and evaluate the 

many different types of MPAs found in the United States. The system uses six objective criteria to describe any 

MPA, rather than relying on formal programmatic names or popular terminology that may be inconsistent or 

misleading. This classification system is derived from a number of existing approaches used by the International 

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), state governments, non-governmental organizations, and others to 

describe MPAs. The primary classification criteria are the MPA’s: 

 Primary conservation goal 

 Level of protection 

 Permanence of protection 

 Constancy of protection 

 Scale of protection 

 Allowable extractive activities 

For most MPAs in the U.S., these six characteristics provide a clear picture of why the site was established, what it 

protects, and how it may affect marine ecosystems and associated human uses. This approach should help 

overcome several long-standing obstacles to our collective understanding and effective use of MPAs. 

Consequently, the proposed classification system is intended to: 

 Provide a straightforward common language about MPAs for public policy discussions 

 Clarify confusion over the wide variety of types and terms 

 Allow meaningful assessments of how we currently use different types of MPAs in the U.S. 

 Provide a way to assess the likely conservation impacts of existing and proposed MPAs 

 Inform the effort to develop a framework for an effective national system of MPAs 
DRAFT ii 

WHAT IS AN MPA? THE OFFICIAL U.S. DEFINITION 

“Marine protected area” is a widely used umbrella term that encompasses a variety of approaches to place-based 

management in the U.S. The official federal definition of an MPA derived from Executive Order 13158 is: “any 

area of the marine environment that has been reserved by Federal, State, tribal, territorial, or local laws or 

regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.” Areas that 

restrict access for purposes other than conservation (e.g. security zones), and areas that are inaccessible logistically 

are not considered to be MPAs, although they may confer some conservation value. 

In practice, MPAs are specific places in the ocean and the Great Lakes within which the natural and/or cultural 

resources are afforded a higher-level protection than in surrounding waters. Existing MPAs in the U.S. span a 

surprising range of habitats including areas in the open ocean, in coastal areas, in the inter-tidal zone, in estuaries 

and in the Great Lakes waters. They also vary widely in their purpose, legal authorities, agencies and management 

approaches, level of protection and restrictions on human uses 

OVERVIEW OF THE MPA CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM 

The new MPA classification system simplifies this often confusing diversity of terminology by focusing on a few 

key functional features that together describe those aspects of the MPA that are of greatest concern to stakeholders, 

agencies and scientists. Outlined below are the six fundamental design characteristics, and options within them, 

used to describe any MPA. In practice, the first two characteristics – (a) the primary conservation goal and (b) the 

level of protection – address most of the issues and concerns underlying the national MPA policy dialogue. 

(1) Primary Conservation Goal (2) Level of Protection Afforded 

  Natural Heritage  No Access 

  Cultural Heritage  No Impact 

  Sustainable Production  No Take 

  Zoned With No Take Area(s) 

 Zoned Multiple Use 

 Uniform Multiple Use 

(3) Permanence of Protection (4) Constancy of Protection 

  Permanent  Year-round 

  Conditional  Seasonal 

  Temporary  Rolling 

(5) Scale of Protection (6) Allowed Extractive Uses 

  Ecosystem  Recreational Fishing 

  Focal Resource  Commercial Fishing 

  Subsistence Hunting / Fishing 

 Scientific / Educational Collecting 

  Mineral / Energy Extraction 

  Other 
DRAFT iii 

EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN THE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM 

This section presents a more detailed description of the six fundamental MPA characteristics, and the options 

within them, used by the classification system. 

PRIMARY CONSERVATION GOAL 

While many MPAs in the US have multiple objectives, most are established by law to achieve a primary 

overarching conservation goal that reflects their statutory mandates, implementing regulations and management 

plans. The primary conservation goal also determines many fundamental aspects of the site’s design, location, size, 

scale and management strategies. 

 Natural Heritage -- established and managed principally to sustain the protected area’s natural 

biological communities, habitats, ecosystems and processes, and the ecological services, uses and values 

they provide to this and future generations. 

Applications: most national marine sanctuaries, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and 

many state MPAs. 

 Cultural Heritage -- established and managed principally to protect, understand and interpret 

submerged cultural resources that reflect the nation’s maritime history and traditional cultural connections 

to the sea. i

Applications: some marine sanctuaries, national and state parks and national historic monuments. 

 Sustainable Production -- established and managed principally to support the continued sustainable 

extraction of renewable living resources (e.g. fish, shellfish, plants, birds or mammals) within or outside the 

MPA by protecting important habitat and spawning, mating or nursery grounds; or providing harvest 

refugia for by-catch species. ii

Applications: most federal and state fisheries MPAs and many national wildlife refuges. 

LEVEL OF PROTECTION AFFORDED 

MPAs in the U.S. vary widely in the level and type of legal protections provided to the site’s natural and cultural 

resources and to the natural environmental processes that sustain them. The five levels of protection described 

below largely determine both the effectiveness an MPA and its impacts on human uses and activities. 

 No Access – MPAs that prohibit all significant ecological disturbances in the protected area by 

restricting all access, unless specifically permitted for designated special uses such as research, monitoring 

or restoration. 

Applications: extremely rare in the U.S., occurring mainly as small research-only zones within 

larger multiple use MPAs. Other commonly used terms for no access MPAs include wilderness 

areas or marine preserves. 

 No Impact – MPAs that allow access but prohibit activities that could harm the MPA’s resources or 

disrupt the ecological or cultural services it provides. Prohibited activities often include resource 

extraction; discharge of pollutants; disposal of materials; and any significant alteration of submerged 

cultural resources, biological assemblages, ecological interactions, protected habitats, or the natural 

processes that support them. 
DRAFT iv 

Applications: very rare in U.S. waters, occurring mainly as small isolated MPAs or in small zones 

within larger multiple use MPAs. Other commonly used terms include fully protected marine (or 

ecological) reserves. 

 No Take – MPAs that allow access and some potentially harmful human uses but prohibit the extraction 

or significant destruction of natural or cultural resources. 

Applications: rare in the U.S., occurring mainly in state MPAs, in some federal areas closed for 

either fisheries management or the protection of endangered species, or as generally small no take 

zones within larger multiple use MPAs. Other commonly used terms include marine reserves or 

ecological reserves 

 Zoned With No Take Area(s) – Multiple use MPAs that employ marine zoning, including one or more 

no take areas where all extraction is prohibited, to manage a range of human activities by allocating 

specific uses to compatible places or times in order to reduce user conflicts and adverse impacts while 

providing an overall level of protection that exceeds that of surrounding waters. 

Applications: increasingly common in U.S. waters, including some marine sanctuaries, national 

parks, national wildlife refuges, and state MPAs. 

 Zoned Multiple Use – MPAs that allow some extractive activities throughout, but that employ marine 

zoning to allocate specific uses to compatible places or times in order to reduce user conflicts and adverse 

impacts while providing an overall level of protection that exceeds that of surrounding waters. 

Applications: relatively common in U.S. waters, including some marine sanctuaries, national 

parks, national wildlife refuges, and state MPAs. 

 Uniform Multiple Use – MPAs that apply a consistent level of protection and allowable activities, 

including certain extractive uses, across the entire protected area. 

Applications: among the most common MPA types in the US; typical of many marine sanctuaries, 

national and state parks; many fisheries and cultural resource MPAs. 

PERMANANCE OF PROTECTION 

Not all MPAs are permanently protected. Many vary widely in how long their protections remain effect, which in 

turn, profoundly affects their ultimate impacts on ecosystems and users. 

 Permanent – MPAs whose legal authorities protect special places in the ocean in perpetuity for future 

generations. 

Applications: some marine sanctuaries, all national parks. 

 Conditional -- MPAs that have the potential, and often the expectation, to persist administratively over 

time, but whose legal authority has a finite duration and must be renewed or ratified based on periodic 

governmental reviews of performance. 

Applications: some national marine sanctuaries, parks and monuments with ‘sunset’ clauses.’’ 

 Temporary -- MPAs that are designed to address relatively short-term conservation and/or 

management needs by protecting a specific habitat or species for a finite duration, with no expectation or 

specific mechanism for renewal 

Applications: some fisheries closures, including rolling closures. 
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CONSTANCY OF PROTECTION 

Not all MPAs provide year-round protection to the enclosed area. Three levels of “constancy” are seen among 

MPAs in the U.S. 

 Year-Round – MPAs that provide constant protection throughout the year. 

Applications: all marine sanctuaries, national parks, refuges, monuments, and some fisheries sites. 

 Seasonal -- MPAs that protect specific habitats and resources, but only during certain seasons when 

human uses may disrupt ecologically sensitive seasonal processes such as spawning, breeding or feeding 

aggregations. 

Applications: some fisheries and endangered species closures around sensitive habitats. 

 Rolling – MPAs that persist for a finite duration and are then de-designated and moved to another 

location to fulfill similar conservation or management goals. 

Applications: fisheries closures created for the purpose of recovering a localized population to 

harvestable levels. 

SCALE OF PROTECTION 

MPAs in the U.S. vary widely in the ecological scale targeted by the site’s legal protections. Examples range from 

sites with entire ecosystems as the conservation target, to those that target a single focal species of economic or 

ecological importance. Scale of protection reflects the MPA’s underlying legal authorities and, in turn, influences 

the area’s design, siting and management approach. 

 Ecosystem – MPAs whose legal authorities and management measures are intended to protect the entire 

ecosystem or habitat within its boundaries. 

Applications: most marine sanctuaries, national parks and national monuments. 

 Focal Resource – MPAs whose legal authorities and management measures specifically target one or a 

limited suite of identified resources (either natural or cultural). 

Applications: many fisheries and cultural resource sites, including some national wildlife refuges 

and sanctuaries. 

ALLOWABLE EXTRACTIVE ACTIVITIES 

Many multiple use MPAs in the U.S. allow one or more forms of resource extraction that are deemed compatible 

with the purposes of their designation. The specific allocation of allowable uses within and among MPAs can 

profoundly affect the protected ecosystems and is of intense interest to potential users. Key extractive activities 

may include: 

 Commercial Fishing – Taking marine organisms for commercial gain. 

 Recreational Fishing – Taking marine organisms for sport and/or personal consumption. 
DRAFT vi 

 Subsistence Fishing / Hunting – Taking marine organisms for legally or culturally recognized 

subsistence purposes. 

 Scientific / Educational Collecting – Taking natural or cultural resources for the purposes of research 

and monitoring, or for educating people about marine environments. 

 Minerals / Energy Extraction – Taking non-renewable resources commercial gain. 

 Other – Extractive activities other than those listed above. 

CONTACT 

Charles M. Wahle, Ph.D. 

Director 

MPA Science Institute 

National MPA Center 

NOAA Fisheries Lab 

110 Shaffer Road 

Santa Cruz, CA 

Phone - 831.242.2052 

Email - charles.wahle@noaa.gov

 

i

 A question has been raised by the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee (MPAFAC) about whether this 

definition should be broadened beyond cultural ‘artifacts’ ( per Executive Order 13158) to include culturally significant 

traditional uses of marine ecosystems, particularly among indigenous peoples. The resolution of this issue will depend, in part, 

on input from the public, the MPAFAC and other relevant agencies. 

 . 

ii A question has been raised by the MPAFAC about whether this definition should be broadened to include non-renewable 

resources, such as minerals or energy resources that may be protected by federal and state agencies for managed or eventual 

extraction. The resolution of this issue will depend, in part, on input from the public, the MPAFAC and other relevant 

agencies.