Man O War Shoal Marine Park
Note: The data were entered in the language of the country of origin (English, French or Spanish) and there is no translation available yet.Chapter 7. MONITORING AND EVALUATION
In general, describe how the nominated site addresses monitoring and evaluation
The Marine Park Manager and Ranger along with volunteers continued with 12 different monitoring programmes which keep a record of various aspects of the environment in 2013. These provided data for analysis on island and by international organisations.
The monitoring programmes focus on coral reefs, turtles, marine mammals and sharks - species of which are included in SPAW Annexes II and III. Other programmes cover threats facing the MPA, including bleaching and the invasive lionfish. The table below gives a summary of the monitoring programme.
|
Monitoring Programme |
Frequency |
Detail |
|
Sea turtle nesting beaches |
215 days of nesting season. |
Five beaches observation of turtle nests, every day April to November carried out by volunteers and the MPA manager, using the SWOT Protocol. |
|
Sea turtle hotline |
Ongoing |
Reports of turtle nesting activity. |
|
Marine mammal monitoring |
Once a week |
AGOA protocol from French side of St. Maarten. Further analysis to be carried out eventually. |
|
Bleaching |
May to October once a week |
NAFSXM bleaching response plan, data collected and submitted to CORAL WATCH. |
|
REEF CHECK |
Once a month, bi-weekly in bleaching season. May through October being bleaching season. |
NAFSXM analyses the data first then sends it off to NOAA to form part of the ICRI state of the worlds reefs database. |
|
Lionfish monitoring |
3-4 times a week |
Since July 15th, data analysed is by NAFSXM. Fish counts protocol from Lionfish response plan. |
|
Pelican monitoring |
Once a week |
In addtion to enviromental monitoring, the Nature Foundation has taken part in the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance Management Success Project for the last 10 years. The management success project is an ongoing DCNA project designed to measure the management effectiveness of each of the park management organizations in the Dutch Caribbean. The management success project has developed a tool for collecting data using objective indicators to measure ’success’ across a broad spectrum of protected area management tasks and activities. Ultimately, the management success project can be used as a model for park organizations to improve accountability, transparency and professionalism.
What indicators are used to evaluate management effectiveness and conservation success, and the impact of the management plan on the local communities
| Indicators by category | Comments | |
| Evaluation of management effectiveness | ||
| DCNA Management Success Project | Graphics and detailed analysis of management effort enables redirection of management effort if necessary. | |
| Threats vs effort | Independent evaluation of the threats facing the park vs effort spent addressing the threats. | |
| Evaluation of conservation measures on the status of species populations within and around protected area | ||
| Time series data | Datais collected, as outlined in the monitoring section, on a number of important species. This is analysed by the foundation and by international organisations, the outputs of which are available to the Nature Foundation | |
| Shark census | ||
| Marine mammal monitoring | ||
| Turtle nest monitoring | ||
| Lionfish monitoring | ||
| Seagrass monitoring | ||
| Pelican monitoring | ||
| Evaluation of conservation measures on the status of habitats within and around the protected area | ||
| Disease incidence in corals | REEFCHECK | |
| Coral cover | ||
| Coral diversity | REEFCHECK | |
| Seagrass diversity | ||
| Evaluation of conservation measures on the status of ecological processes within and around the protected area | ||
| Water quality testing. | ||
| Evaluation of the impact of the management plan on the local communities | ||