Global effects of marine protected areas on food security are unknown/Reply

[...]we are concerned that the model used by the a uthors does not present a reliable assessment of the effect of MPAs on the yields of fisheries and, by extension, that it is not a reliable foundation for the broader assessment of the roleofMPAs in achieving multiple objectives of marine conservati...

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Published in:Nature (London) 2023-09, Vol.621 (7979), p.E34-2
Main Authors: Ovando, Daniel, Liu, Owen, Molina, Renato, Parma, Ana, Szuwalski, Cody, Sala, Enric, Mayorga, Juan, Bradley, Darcy, Cabral, Reniel B, Atwood, Trisha B, Auber, Arnaud, Cheung, William, Costello, Christopher, Ferretti, Francesco, Friedlander, Alan M, Gaines, Steven D, Garilao, Cristina, Goodell, Whitney, Halpern, Benjamin S, Hinson, Audra, Kaschner, Kristin, Kesner-Reyes, Kathleen, Leprieur, Fabien, Lubchenco, Jane, McGowan, Jennifer, Morgan, Lance E, Mouillot, David, Palacios-Abrantes, Juliano, Possingham, Hugh P, Rechberger, Kristin D, Worm, Boris
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Biodiversity
Climate action
Commercial fishing
Density
Density dependence
Exclusive economic zone
Fish
Fisheries
Fishing
Food security
Marine conservation
Marine protected areas
Modelling
Population number
Population studies
Protected areas
Statistics
Stock assessment
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Summary:[...]we are concerned that the model used by the a uthors does not present a reliable assessment of the effect of MPAs on the yields of fisheries and, by extension, that it is not a reliable foundation for the broader assessment of the roleofMPAs in achieving multiple objectives of marine conservation, food security and climate action1. The results of Sala et al.1 depend on the same model as those of a previously published study2 (see also ref. 3), which assumes that density dependence is a function of total pooled population size, independent of how fish are distributed in space, and that unassessed fish stocks (that is, stocks not included in the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database) of a given species are a single global interconnected population. In that study, a Pella-Tomlinson5 population model was used and it was assumed that separate stock unitsexist inside the waters of a specific country within a major statistical area designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for each unassessed taxonomic group, except for highly mobile unassessed stocks, which are assumed to be well-mixed within FAO major statistical areas. For our base results, weassume that density dependence (such as the competition for food or habitat) occurs at a local scale, with MPAs providinga spill-over of fish biomass to fished areas through the movement dynamics in the model.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/s41586-023-06493-8