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CORVALLIS - A new booklet and video are available about marine reserves, an issue of increasing interest and debate in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation. Titled "The Science of Marine Reserves," the materials were produced by the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, or PISCO, a research consortium of which Oregon State University is one of the founding members.

The 15-minute video and booklet can be viewed on the web at the PISCO website: piscoweb.org.

Free copies of the four-color booklet may also be obtained by contacting Brooke Simler, the project's coordinator, at 541-737-9173, or sending an e-mail request to simlerb@science.oregonstate.edu.

"These resources provide the latest scientific information about reserves in an understandable format, and are designed for natural resource managers, government officials, scientists and the interested public," said Renee Davis-Born, policy coordinator for PISCO in the OSU Department of Zoology.

Officials in Oregon will soon consider whether to set aside a small portion of the state's coastal waters in marine reserves to see how well such approaches help meet goals for marine conservation, research, education and other issues.

Marine reserves , experts say, are defined areas of the ocean in which no extractive or harmful activities are allowed, including fishing, mining and disposal of dredged materials. Marine reserves can be one tool in a broader program of marine ecosystem management to hel p protect biodiversity, increase the abundance and health of marine life, and recharge depleted fisheries by providing "spillover" benefits to nearby marine areas outside the reserves.

The new booklet and video discuss what marine reserves are, how they differ from other programs of marine management or protection, what benefits they may provide, what case studies have been done to document their effectiveness, how they can be designed , what sizes might be needed, and many other topics. Questions such as these are frequently asked by the public, government agencies, user groups, policy makers and scientists as they consider establishing marine reserves, Davis-Born said.

A recent national poll about the topic of marine reserves showed considerable interest and support in such approaches, Davis-Born said. And a poll done in Oregon had similar findings, although many people greatly overestimated the amount of protection th at currently exists in marine areas. Support for at least some fully protected areas was strong throughout the state, she said.

PISCO scientists at OSU and three other universities collaborate on integrated studies of the near-shore ecosystems of the West Coast. By conducting large-scale studies over many years and at many sites, the consortium is developing a comprehensive unders tanding of how coastal marine ecosystems function.