Design and implementation of a program to monitor ocean health

A framework is presented for the design and implementation of an ocean health monitoring program. The fundamental purpose of such a monitoring program is discussed, the underlying concepts of ocean health and monitoring are defined, and a strategy is outlined that describes the decisions that must be made in the early stages of program design. The process begins with an assessment of the potential threats to ocean health in the environment that is to be protected, followed by assigning priorities to those threats. The monitoring itself must be based on scientifically sound questions and be capable of distinguishing between environmental damage and natural variability. A clear definition of monitoring goals is essential, as is the selection of suitable indicators. Indicators may be direct measurements of physical changes, contaminants or biological and ecological effects, or proxy measurements of these attributes. Because it is not possible to monitor for all threats, the monitoring strategy should include broad-spectrum environmental indicators that would alert us to problems without necessarily understanding the cause. A number of related activities, including ecological studies, the construction of mass budgets, the examination of case studies, cataloguing contaminant emissions, and the maintenance of tissue archives can contribute to the design of monitoring programs or the interpretation of data arising from them. Models are an important supplement to monitoring activities, but should not replace them: our ability to predict the behaviour of ecosystems is not adequate to protect them. Examples of threats to ocean health from the Canadian experience are used to illustrate some of these principles.