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| | National Marine Protected Areas Center: National System MPA Definitions and Criteria |
 | | Without further clarification, the key terms of “area,” “marine environment,” “reserved,” “lasting,” and “protection” found in the MPA definition are subject to a range of interpretations and lead to an uncertain scope for the National System. |
 | | For example, the term would not include areas closed for navigational safety, areas closed to safeguard modern man-made structures (e.g., submarine cable no-anchor zones), polluted shellfish-bed closure areas, areas closed to avoid fishing gear conflicts, and areas subject to area-based regulations that are established solely to limit fisheries by quota management or to facilitate enforcement. |
 | | Again, the Order’s definition of MPA, when taken together with the definitions of the five key terms of “area,” “marine,” “reserved,” “lasting,” and “protection,” and the additional National System MPA criteria listed above represent the complete set of criteria for existing MPA sites and systems to determine their participation in the National System. |
| www.mpa.gov /all_about_mpa/mpa_def_criteria.html (1353 words) |
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