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Marine Protected Areas and Sustainable Fisheries

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... Marine protected areas (MPAs) and fishing no-take zones are proving to be valuable tools for management of marine fiShery resources (Roberts, 1997; Allison et al., 1998; Lauck et al:, 1998). The proposed virtues of MPAs include protection of spawning stock, elevation of recruitment rates, maintenance of the age and size structures of stocks, and preservation of a balance in the frequencies of predatory and prey species (Ballantine, 1991; Bohnsack, 1992; Gubbay, 1995; Shackell and Willison, 1995; Bohnsack and Ault, 1996). One possible benefit of no-take reserves that has received little attention is the protection of genetic resources for life-history patterns within stocks (Plan Development Team, 1990). ...
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One of the proposed benefits of marine protected areas (MPAs) is to conserve genetic diversity for life-history traits and to restore some semblance of the life history that was expressed before intense exploitation. Strong size-selective mortality from fishing has promoted an earlier age and smaller size at maturity in many species and a concomitant reduction in subsequent adult body sizes. These attributes are less economically desirable than those of fish from less heavily exploited stocks. We attempted to determine whether the establishment of marine protected areas, and the resulting relaxation of the directional selection produced by fishing mortality, would promote a substantial restoration of later ages at maturity. Our quantitative genetic models, calibrated with historical data from Gulf of Mexico populations of red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, indicated that adequate variation should remain for life-history traits like age at maturity to respond to new fitness profiles. Marine species with planktonic larvae, including most economically important fishes, have high gene-flow rates that will preclude genetic differentiation between the no-take MPAs and the rest of the population. Any changes in the life history that are promoted by the no-take area may therefore ramify through the entire population. The establishment of no-take MPAs will promote substantial increases in the age at maturity if recruitment into them is not limited by density-dependent mortality. If it is, the benefit of no-take areas for increasing the age at maturity will be decreased. The no-take MPAs must serve as the major source of recruits for nearby fishing areas to produce the proposed benefits. The creation of MPAs will not replace the benefits of limiting age or size biases in harvesting by traditional fisheries management.
Article
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) often have dual goals of protecting biodiversity and increasing sustainability of fisheries. To understand how MPAs are performing at these goals, evaluation of fish biomass outcomes against management targets is needed. However, the evaluation of performance should consider multiple biophysical and social drivers that vary over the seascape to inform spatially explicit targets for fish biomass. Including spatial variation when evaluating MPA performance is particularly important for MPA networks because it enables managers to set more realistic expectations for MPA outcomes and adapt management across individual areas. Here we develop a modelling approach to predict how fishing pressure and biophysical conditions affect expected recovery of fish biomass. We apply the approach to model herbivore and predator biomass at 57 sites for two MPAs in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. We then use this model to predict biomass recovery towards reference sites indicative of low-fishing pressure. We found that historical fishing pressure, wave exposure and proximity to coastal habitats were all important determinants of pre-MPA fish biomass. Our predictions therefore, indicated the implemented MPA no-take zones should have some of the highest reef fish biomass based on both their location within the MPA, and the removal of fishing pressure. We also identify sites that may be underperforming and warrant further management, for instance, further investigation of poaching as a cause of poor recovery trends. We suggest that evaluation of MPA performance needs to consider the link to historical fishing pressure and biophysical conditions with biodiversity outcomes.
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One billion people around the world rely upon fish as their primary and in many cases, their only source of protein. At the same time, increasing demand from wealthier populations in the U.S. and Europe encourages dangerous overfishing practices along coastal waters. 'Fish for Life' addresses the problem of overfishing at local, national, and global levels as part of a comprehensive governance approach - one that acknowledges the critical intersection of food security, environmental protection, and international law in fishing practices throughout the world.
Chapter
One billion people around the world rely upon fish as their primary and in many cases, their only source of protein. At the same time, increasing demand from wealthier populations in the U.S. and Europe encourages dangerous overfishing practices along coastal waters. 'Fish for Life' addresses the problem of overfishing at local, national, and global levels as part of a comprehensive governance approach - one that acknowledges the critical intersection of food security, environmental protection, and international law in fishing practices throughout the world.
Chapter
One billion people around the world rely upon fish as their primary and in many cases, their only source of protein. At the same time, increasing demand from wealthier populations in the U.S. and Europe encourages dangerous overfishing practices along coastal waters. 'Fish for Life' addresses the problem of overfishing at local, national, and global levels as part of a comprehensive governance approach - one that acknowledges the critical intersection of food security, environmental protection, and international law in fishing practices throughout the world.
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This collection of essays is about tourism and social, political, and economic relations in coastal locations in various parts of the world. The starting point of each chapter is the ethnographic study of one particular place. However, the authors are also concerned with wider regional, national, and global forces which shape and influence the local economies and societies under review. Although most of the essays focus on the European coastline, the book is intended to have implications for other geographical areas. In most parts of the world, coastal settlements and contexts are changing rapidly and markedly. These contexts are routinely characterised by conflict between different interest groups contesting the ownership and control of the foreshore and its resources. One of the threads running through the volume is that coastal regions are often sites of fishing and related 'traditional' activities. The chapters discuss the relationships between traditional stakeholders, such as fishermen and local residents, and new stakeholders including new residents, second-home owners, tourists and tourism property developers, and fish farm managers as they vie for status, influence, and ultimately for space on the foreshore. The underlying preoccupation of the volume as a whole is the extent of penetration and transformation resulting from the onward march of capitalism and the market system in the coastal locations studied.
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This study examined the relative rates of bill fish bycatch and target species catch by areas (1°, 2°, and 5°latitude and longitude) and months in the catch data reported in mandatory log books kept by U.S. pelagic-longline fishermen in order to identify potential time-area strata that could reduce billfish bycatch. The 1986-91 mean percentages identified month-area strata with high percentages of sailfish and marlin bycatch and marlin only bycatch. The analyses indicated that the elimination of effort in cells selected according to percentages of bill fish in the catch could have reduced the 1986-91 bill fish bycatch by 50% and the target species from 13.9 to 19.2%, depending on the spatial resolution employed. The corresponding analysis of marlin only indicated a 50% reduction in marlin bycatch could have been attained and a 16.4-20.7% reduction in the target species catch. The time-area closures identified in the 1986-91 logbook data were applied to the data for 1992-95 and provided a test of the spatial and temporal stabilities of these results. For the evaluation of sailfish and marlin combined, the reductions in both billfish bycatch and target species catches averaged less than the predicted values, but in all cases billfish were selectively protected. For the evaluation of marlin only, the reduction of sailfish bycatch was less than the predicted amount and the reduction of the target species was slightly greater than the predicted value. The agreement between the predicted level of protection for billfish or marlin and the mean value for the 1992-96 test period increased with increasing size of the grid. At the 5°cell size, the mean reduction was 22.8% for the targeted species and 48.6% for marlin (compared with predicted values of 20.7 and 50% respectively). These results suggest that time and area restrictions on fishing could significantly reduce the bycatch of billfishes in the pelagic-longline fisheries without equivalent reductions in the catch of target species.
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Atlantic blue and white marlin are currently overfished, primarily as a result of bycatch in pelagic longlines directed at other species. One possible management measure to reduce fishing mortality on these species would be to restrict fishing effort in times and places with exceptionally high marlin catch per unit effort (CPUE). The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas maintains a database of catch and catch-effort statistics of participating nations. These data were analysed to determine whether the distribution of CPUE is sufficiently heterogeneous in time and space that such measures might provide meaningful management alternatives. The resulting distributions of catch rates were also contrasted with monthly average sea surface temperatures to examine the possible association between temperature and CPUE. The results show spatio-temporal heterogeneity in catch rates that may be partly explained by seasonal changes in sea surface temperatures. The time–area concentrations of high CPUE differ between the species. This observed heterogeneity might be exploited to develop alternatives for reducing fishing mortality for future management of the fisheries, but additional research is needed to refine the spatial scale of the analysis and to more fully understand the factors contributing to the observed distribution.
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