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Marine protected areas in 'nonlinear' ecosystems.

John H Steele¹, Andrew R Beet

¹Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. jsteele@whoi.edu

Proceedings. Biological Sciences

|December 12, 2003

Summary

Marine protected areas can boost depleted fish stocks and yields, even without reducing overall fishing effort. However, reducing fishing effort remains the most effective strategy for maximizing fishery recovery and yield.

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Area of Science:

Marine ecology
Fisheries science
Ecosystem dynamics

Background:

Marine communities exhibit large shifts due to overfishing, potentially switching between alternative stable states.
Implementing significant reductions in overall fishing effort is often challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the effectiveness of large marine protected areas (MPAs) in increasing depleted fish stocks and total yield in nonlinear ecosystems.
To compare the yield increases from MPAs with those achieved through fishing effort reduction.

Main Methods:

Modeling or analysis of marine ecosystems exhibiting alternative stable states.
Simulating the impact of establishing large marine protected areas with minimal harvesting.
Comparing outcomes with scenarios involving reduced overall fishing effort.

Main Results:

Large marine protected areas can lead to a marked increase in the total yield of depleted stocks.
These increases are substantial but still less than those achievable by reducing fishing effort.

Conclusions:

Marine protected areas offer a viable strategy to enhance yields in overfished, nonlinear ecosystems, even without broad fishing effort reduction.
While MPAs provide benefits, reducing overall fishing effort is superior for maximizing fishery recovery and long-term yield.

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