Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (ERAF) feasibility and suitability evaluation based on a subset of Significant Ecological Components (SEC) from the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents Marine Protected Area (EHV MPA.)

The Pacific Region ERAF provides a comprehensive approach for assessing all threats to marine ecosystems by evaluating cumulative risk from multiple activities to multiple ecosystem components for ecosystem-based management (EBM), improving upon international and national best practices in risk assessment that focus solely on single activities (e.g., ERAFs for assessing fisheries impacts) or single ecosystem-components (e.g., habitat-based risk assessments). This project applies the Level 2 Risk Assessment framework (O et al. 2015) to the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents Marine Protected Area (EHV MPA) to determine the relative risk to the EHV MPA ecosystem from anthropogenic activities.