DOI: 10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t4c
title: Environmental Justice, Marine Protected Areas, & Ocean Access in California -- Ocean_Justice

description: Coastal California is home to a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
 that aim to safeguard the state’s marine resources and ecosystems. Little
 is known about who is served and not served by California’s MPAs, with
 large gaps in environmental justice implications. Our study aimed to
 investigate access to MPAs across communities in California using multiple
 lines of evidence, with a focus on subsistence fishers (pier fishers and
 others who do not sell their catch) who are often indirectly marginalized
 by MPAs. To address this, we 1) conducted a literature review on equity
 and environmental justice (EEJ) in California’s ocean management policies,
 2) compared time traveled to MPAs for zip codes of different demographics,
 3) conducted a literature review on subsistence fishing in California, and
 4) compared demographics of subsistence fishers with intensity of
 ocean-based pollution linked to fished species. Our EEJ literature review
 highlighted a gap in policies addressing equitable ocean access. Our
 spatial analysis revealed disparities in coastal access by age, race, and
 income. Our subsistence fishing literature review highlighted that little
 is known about California’s current subsistence fishing, though
 biophysical aspects are better studied than socioeconomic aspects. Our
 analysis of pollution and subsistence fishing suggested that many
 subsistence fishers from disadvantaged communities are fishing in areas
 with high pollution. State and federal agencies can utilize our results to
 develop effective future management strategies for equitable access to
 California’s MPAs that take disadvantaged communities into account,
 especially subsistence fishers, to increase their representation in the
 decision-making process.
description: Data Collection: Data included in this
 repository includes: A literature review on subsistence fishers in
 Californina, a literature review on equity and environmental justice as it
 relates to ocean access, GIS data used for spatial analysis as it related
 to subsistence fishers and environmental justice indicators, previously
 collected data from CalEnviroScreen, and pollution data sourced from the
 NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. Data
 Processing: This repository includes subsets of
 databases from RStudio and Arc Pro. In the data which is relevant to
 environmental justice and access to California MPAs, including for example
 percentage of poverty, age of people 65 and older, race, and overall score
 of disadvantage per zip code.  A link to the
 subsistence data process: Work_Log_Notes.pdf
  
description: # Environmental Justice, Marine Protected Areas, & Ocean Access in
 California-- Ocean\_Justice Information regarding the Ocean Access
 analysis, the Hotspot analysis, and the literature reviews portion of the
 project are found in the attached folder linked below.  The
 mec_bren_deliverables folder contains each of the subset folders for the
 different analyses. The subsequent folders pertaining to the Ocean Access
 Analysis include mec_bren_final_data_original,
 mec_bren_final_data_results, mec_bren_final_gis_packages, and
 mec_bren_final_r_projects. These five folders contain a subset folder
 titled Ocean_Access, subsistence_fishing, and ej_access which contains the
 related data. ## Description of the data and file structure **Folder
 Contents** * **mec_bren_deliverables** * **Mec_bren_final_data_original**
 * **ej_access** * **All_access_zipcode_driving.txt (Routes data by zip
 codes)** * **All_access_zipcode_driving.gpkg (Routes data by zip codes)**
 * **Calenviroscreen40shpf2021shp (Folder containing the CalEnviroScreen
 4.0 data with all of the EJ indicators used)** * **subsistence_fishing** *
 **jacksmelt.csv (jacksmelt data)** * **redrockcrab.csv (redrock crab
 data)** * **dungenesscrab.csv (dungeness crab data)** * **chubmackerel.csv
 (chub mackerel data)** * **impact_pollution.tif (pollution data)** *
 **ca_curr_sp_rich.tif (species richness data)** * **northernanchovy.csv
 (northern anchovy data)** * **mm_merged_i3.csv** * **mm_merged_i2.csv** *
 **merged_cleaned_mmCDFW (1).csv** * **driver.R** *
 **load_organize_remove_pii_bb.R** * **load_organize_remove_pii_mm.R** *
 **bb_merged_i3.csv** * **bb_merged_i1.csv** * **mm_merged_i1.csv** *
 **bb_merged_i2.csv** * **Mec_bren_final_data_results** * **ej_access** *
 **All_access.csv (All Access Points data)** * **Race.data.csv (Race
 data)** * **subsistence_fishing** * **num_subfishers_zip.csv** *
 **num_subfishers_cnty.csv** * **merged_cleaned_mmCDFW.csv** *
 **allcol_merged_mmCDFW.csv** * **mec_bren_final_gis_packages** *
 **ej_access** * **Disadvantaged_Groups_via_zipcode.ppkx (ArcGIS project
 containing EJ indicators such as poverty, age (above 65) and race)** *
 **subsistence_fishing** * **Hotspot_Analysis_anchovy_duncrab.aprx (ArcGIS
 project containing northern anchovy and dungeness crab)** *
 **Hotspot_Analysis_redrock_jacksmelt_mackerel.aprx (ArcGIS project
 containing redrock crab, jacksmelt, and mackerel)** *
 **mec_bren_final_r_projects** * **ej_access** *
 **Disadvantaged_via_zipcodes_distance.Rmd** *
 **Disadvantaged_via_zipcodes_Race.Rmd** * **examples.Rmd (shows the graphs
 for the statistical tests/significance)** ## Sharing/Access information
 Data was derived from the following sources: * CalEnviroScreen 4.0
 data [https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data](https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data) * R code: [https://github.com/atdaniels1/Bren_Project](https://github.com/atdaniels1/Bren_Project) ##