California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative Announcement

Who: MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force

What: Seeks contractor to gather data on spatial use patterns of selected non-consumptive recreational activities in the MLPA North Central Coast Study Region (Alder Creek/Point Arena to Pigeon Point)

When: Proposals are due no later than 12:00 noon on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 and contractor is expected to begin work no later than June 27, 2007

Where: See below for details

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California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative
Scope of Work for Data Collection on
Spatial Use Patterns of Selected Non-Consumptive Recreational Activities in the MLPA North Central Coast Study Region
(Alder Creek/Point Arena to Pigeon Point, CA)

Revised June 12, 2007

Background

The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative is a public-private partnership designed to help the State of California implement the MLPA, using the best readily available science as well as the advice and assistance of scientists, resource managers, experts, stakeholders and members of the public. The MLPA directs the state to redesign California’s system of marine protected areas to increase its coherence and effectiveness in protecting the state’s marine life and habitats, marine ecosystems, and marine natural heritage, as well as to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems.

The MLPA Initiative has several goals that are being achieved through the collaborative efforts of a number of professional staff, a science advisory team, two groups of stakeholders (statewide and north central coast), and the interested public, all under the guidance of a blue ribbon task force established by Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. The work of the task force will be completed by May 2008; however, the State of California will continue the work started by the task force along the remaining sections of California coast, with a goal of completing those regions by 2011.

The MLPA Initiative seeks to gather information regarding areas of importance for specific non-consumptive user groups in the MLPA North Central Coast Study Region (from Alder Creek near Point Arena in Mendocino County to Pigeon Point in San Mateo County). Spatial data on areas of importance, as well as qualitative data on why areas are important, are proposed to be gathered in four workshops, one for each of the following non-consumptive activities:

• Scuba diving and underwater photography
• Tidepooling
• Whale watching and marine wildlife viewing
• Kayaking

The resulting maps and associated information gathered by the contractor will be used by members of the MLPA North Central Coast Regional Stakeholder Group, who are charged with developing alternative proposals for marine protected areas (MPAs) in the study region.

Scope of Work
The proposed general approach for gathering information includes:

• Developing the research protocol with input and review by MLPA staff
• Identifying and contacting key informants (preferably ten or more informants for each of the four activities)
• Organizing and holding four separate focus group workshops, one for each user group, to gather the required data
• Conducting additional interviews and groundtruthing as necessary to improve the workshop outputs
• Working with a third party to synthesize the information to produce hard copy and digital (ESRI format GIS) maps of areas of importance to each user group

A research protocol will be developed that uses participatory mapping methods (online or via hardcopy maps) with the goal of identifying discrete areas of importance from key informants of each user group. Relative importance of locations will be discerned using a "one hundred pennies" method (Scholz 2004), consistent with data collection for consumptive user groups in the MLPA process. Data gathered in these workshops will be stored in a GIS database, maps of stated areas of importance for each user group will be generated, and qualitative information as to why these areas are important will be reported.

The contractor will organize and manage the four workshops described above, help to compile and analyze the resulting data, and provide to the MLPA Initiative a summary report and four associated maps (one for each user group) for the study region. The contractor will conduct outreach to each of the user groups in planning the above workshops to ensure that suitable representation of each group is achieved. MLPA Initiative and California Department of Fish and Game staff may provide support during workshops and a third party will provide data management and analysis support.

Deliverables and Timeline
No later than August 22, 2007, the contractor shall provide to the MLPA Initiative the following deliverables:

1. A brief report (3-5 pages) summarizing data collection methods and results.
2. Four (4) maps in both hard copy and GIS digital format displaying areas of stated importance, one for each of the following non-consumptive user-groups: scuba diving, tidepooling, whale watching and marine wildlife viewing, and kayaking.

It is expected that the contractor will begin work on this project by June 27, 2007 and will provide to the MLPA Initiative a progress report on July 27, 2007.

Proposals
Each proposal should include:

1. Name of firm or individual.
   
2. Key contact information, including mail and email addresses, and telephone numbers.
   
3. A statement of key competencies related to the project. Please be specific about the competencies offered.
   
4. A list of relevant projects completed, including clear description of work delivered, time frames and fees.
   
5. Succinct biographical information of the individuals most relevant to these competencies who would undertake any work requested.
   
6. A list of references.
   
7. A short description of proposed methods for identifying workshop participants.
   
8. An estimate of the cost to complete the work described above.

All proposals, including the eight identified elements, should be no longer than ten pages, and submitted no later than 12:00 noon on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 to:

Ken Wiseman, Executive Director
California MLPA Initiative
MLPA.SOQs@resources.ca.gov

All work products will become property of the State of California upon completion of the project. Academic and other publications based on the analyses and data are acceptable if acknowledgement is given to the funding support provided by the MLPA Initiative and the following statement is included on each publication: “The views expressed here are those of the author(s) and have not been reviewed by, nor are they approved by, the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative or the State of California.”

Reference Cited
Scholz, A. J., K. Bonzon, R. Fujita, N. Benjamin, N. Woodling, P. Black and C. Steinback. 2004. "Participatory socioeconomic analysis: drawing on fishermen’s knowledge for marine protected area planning in California." Marine Policy 28(4): 335-349