The good, the bad and the ugly of marine reserves for fishery yields

Marine reserves (MRs) are used worldwide as a means of conserving biodiversity and protecting depleted populations. Despite major investments in MRs, their environmental and social benefits have proven difficult to demonstrate and are still debated. Clear expectations of the possible outcomes of MR...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2015-11, Vol.370 (1681), p.20140276-20140276
Main Authors: De Leo, Giulio A., Micheli, Fiorenza
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biodiversity
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Conservation of Natural Resources - statistics & numerical data
Demographic And Management Models
Ecosystem
Female
Fertility
Fisheries - methods
Fisheries - statistics & numerical data
Fishes - growth & development
Fishes - physiology
Large Spawners
Larva - growth & development
Male
Marine
Marine Biology
Marine Reserves
Models, Biological
Population Dynamics
Quota-Based Fisheries
Stochastic Processes
Total Allowable Catches
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Summary:Marine reserves (MRs) are used worldwide as a means of conserving biodiversity and protecting depleted populations. Despite major investments in MRs, their environmental and social benefits have proven difficult to demonstrate and are still debated. Clear expectations of the possible outcomes of MR establishment are needed to guide and strengthen empirical assessments. Previous models show that reserve establishment in overcapitalized, quota-based fisheries can reduce both catch and population abundance, thereby negating fisheries and even conservation benefits. By using a stage-structured, spatially explicit stochastic model, we show that catches under quota-based fisheries that include a network of MRs can exceed maximum sustainable yield (MSY) under conventional quota management if reserves provide protection to old, large spawners that disproportionally contribute to recruitment outside the reserves. Modelling results predict that the net fishery benefit of MRs is lost when gains in fecundity of old, large individuals are small, is highest in the case of sedentary adults with high larval dispersal, and decreases with adult mobility. We also show that environmental variability may mask fishery benefits of reserve implementation and that MRs may buffer against collapse when sustainable catch quotas are exceeded owing to stock overestimation or systematic overfishing.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2014.0276