BAR HARBOR – Among politicians big and small, “marine protected areas” have become the trendy means of conserving ocean ecosystems.

The strategy makes scientific sense – marine protected areas are pockets of habitat in which some uses are restricted in order to protect a multitude of different species, according to experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But as fishermen and environmentalists alike said at an MPA discussion forum held this week on Mount Desert Island, the protected zones are useless if one doesn’t define what is being protected or why it’s worth preserving.

“You can’t go at it backwards,” Ted Hoskins, a local sailor who serves as captain of the Maine Sea Coast Mission Society’s boat, the Sunbeam, said. “MPAs are a possible answer to a question that few people have asked: ‘What’s happening to my resource?’ We can’t argue about the answer without asking the question.”

Last May, President Clinton sparked the current debate when he signed an executive order requiring federal agencies, led by NOAA, to develop a national network of marine protected areas.

“An expanded and strengthened comprehensive system of marine protected areas throughout the marine environment would enhance conservation of our nation’s natural and cultural marine heritage and the ecologically and economically sustainable use of the marine environment for future generations,” the order reads.

This June, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans lent his support to the idea, and the Bush administration’s recently approved budget included $3 million to found a National Center for Marine Protected Areas under NOAA.

Joseph Uravitch, an administrator for the new program, has been charged with implementing the executive order – learning about the thousands of marine protected areas which already exist and determining how they can be used in conjunction with new sites to preserve coastal ecosystems.

So Uravitch asked staff from the New England Aquarium to facilitate a series of forums to glean the public’s thoughts on using marine protected areas to manage the Gulf of Maine.

On Monday evening, about 40 people attended the first of these forums, held at College of the Atlantic. A second forum was held Tuesday at the aquarium’s conference center in downtown Boston. A workshop will be held Oct. 9-10 at the South Portland Holiday Inn.

“Our goal is really to try to get the big picture,” Mike Connor of the New England Aquarium said. “We’re trying to get input before the government has done anything to complain about. Unless this idea has support from a wide community, nothing is going to go anywhere.”

Most of those attending Monday’s forum, however, feared that federal marine protected areas will be forced upon the Gulf of Maine regardless of whether public opinion shows that they are desired or scientifically justified.

“I know, and I think you know, that the end result is not going to be something they [fishermen] choose, something they control, or something they like,” said Rep. Jill Goldthwait, a Bar Harbor independent.

If marine protected areas are designated within fisheries, the entire system of regulations and management practices that fishermen and the National Marine Fisheries Service have developed in recent years will be rendered useless, Dana Wright, a lobster dealer from Ellsworth, pointed out.

“It’s just going to upset the apple cart. It will derail everything that’s been done. This thing scares the hell out of me,” he said.

Others feared that involving federal agencies in local fisheries management will add a layer of bureaucracy to an already complicated industry.

“At this point, we don’t need another agency to deal with all the agencies that are trying to deal with these issues,” Jon Carter, a fisherman from Bar Harbor, added.

Several creative uses for the strategy were proposed Monday.

When viewed outside the realm of fisheries management, marine protected areas can be effective in protecting species that are not commercially viable, Darrin Kelly, a kayak guide and naturalist from Otter Creek, said.

Marine protected areas could even be used to preserve small, traditional fishing operations by restricting large corporate harvesters’ access to certain areas, allowing local management of some fisheries, Goldthwait said.

College of the Atlantic President Steve Katona proposed using marine protected areas to rebuild fisheries in areas within the Gulf of Maine that are no longer considered productive by the fishing industry.

But time and again, people shifted the evening’s discussion away from potential applications for marine protected areas to whether they’re even necessary. Unanimously, participants said that more public discussion and scientific research is needed before a decision is made.

“There’s a tendency to look to this [marine protected areas] as a silver bullet. I’m looking for tools to accomplish my goal – a healthy, balanced ecosystem – not goals to fit my tools,” Susan Farady, New England ecosystems manager for the Ocean Conservancy.Farady recently completed a review of more than 300 existing marine protected areas within the United States-controlled portion of the Gulf of Maine and found little consistency among the goals and management tools used at the various sites.

Nationwide, many such areas designate no-take areas where fishermen cannot work, but others limit large boat traffic or dumping in ecologically sensitive areas, or even protect underwater historical resources such as shipwrecks, Uravitch said.

Yet, local fishermen remain suspicious of the federal government’s motives.

“I feel like, as fishermen, we’re the low man on the totem pole and the ones who are always asked to give something up,” Scott Briggs, a lobsterman from Sorrento, said. “If you went after these yachts and cruise ships, you’d be out of a job, and we wouldn’t be hearing about this.”

“If there’s a species that needs protection in the Gulf of Maine, it’s called the fisherman who’s taken care of it for 250 years,” Wright added.

For information about future MPA forums, contact the New England Aquarium at (617) 973-0294 or (617) 973-5213.