Marine Protected Areas: An Old Tool for New Circumstances

摘要

Reserves and sanctuaries are age-old tools for conservation of fishery resources, but they are underutilized in managing heavily fished stocks in stressed marine ecosystems. Conventional fisheries management, which emphasizes controlling catch and fishing effort, can be effective but is insufficient under some circumstances. A new emphasis on ecosystem-based fisheries management argues that spatial controls, including marine protected areas (MPAs), are desirable components of integrated ocean management plans. A National Research Council (NRC) study and report highlighted the importance of spatial heterogeneity and the need to incorporate it in fisheries management plans. The NRC study concluded that, under many circumstances, MPAs combined with conventional management can: protect habitats and nursery grounds, reduce bycatch, lower fishing mortality on prerecruits, promote "spillover" of recruited fish to unprotected areas, and provide a buffer against uncertainty. Poor understanding of stage-specific dispersal patterns of fish and behavior of fishers (i.e., distribution of effort) outside MPA boundaries constrains acceptance of MPAs by some scientists and managers. If implemented, MPAs must be enforced, monitored, and evaluated to ensure that innovative, incremental, and adaptive implementation of MPAs contributes substantively to precautionary fisheries management.