A review of Gulf of Mexico marine protected areas: Successes, failures, and lessons learned [Review]

摘要

Commercial and recreational fishers in the Gulf of Mexico routinely express in public testimony their concern over the number of fishery regulations in general, and the prospect of having closed areas that affect their opportunities to fish. Of the 16 closed in areas, or marine protected areas, in the Gulf that restrict shrimp and reef-fish fishing, most have not provided anticipated protection for exploited species. The unintended consequences in several cases affect other fisheries or endangered species by shifting fishing effort and thus increasing the vulnerability of additional populations. Three areas are so new that few data are available to demonstrate their effectiveness, although preliminary data are promising. The main problems hindering the effectiveness of Gulf closed areas are ill-conceived development, lack of performance monitoring, and inadequate enforcement. We suggest that well-designed Gulf closed areas be created to address fishing gear impacts on habitat, provide an area free of fishing to allow scientists to obtain accurate estimates of natural or fishing mortality critical to fishery stock assessments, and protect source populations.