Marine Reserves Essential to Achieving Sustainable Fisheries, Say Researchers

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Marine Reserves Essential to Achieving Sustainable Fisheries, Say Researchers
“In the last 15 years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of human impacts on the marine ecosystem.” So begins a paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. From the 1960s to the 1980s, note Callum Roberts, Julie Hawkins, and Fiona Gell of the University of York in England, pollution was the primary concern; today, fisheries are viewed as the most serious human influence on the ocean. Whereas it was once thought that marine species were unlikely to become extinct, it is now recognized that many species are thinly distributed and/or possess life history characteristics that make them especially vulnerable to depletion and extinction. In addition, contrary to popular belief, even highly abundant species may take some time to recover from depletion, if at all: witness, for example, North Atlantic cod stocks, which have still not recovered thirteen years after the fishery off New England was closed.
Noting that, “until recently, responsibility for managing the marine ecosystem has rested largely in the hands of fishery managers,” Roberts and colleagues point out that, increasingly, “coastal nations of the world now see the urgent need to ramp up protection of the marine environment both to recover fisheries and safeguard biodiversity.” One mechanism for such protection that is being greeted with growing enthusiasm, they argue, is the establishment of marine reserves.
However, they note, many—particularly the aforementioned fishery managers—remain skeptical of the benefits of reserves, largely because they cling to certain beliefs about them that, say Roberts and his co-authors, are myths. The three authors attempt to explode some of these myths in their paper. Among them:

-Marine reserves can replace other forms of fisheries management. Roberts and colleagues state that some critics of reserves envisage an ocean in which some no-access zones exist alongside a network of “anything goes” open areas. In fact, they argue, “experience shows that [reserves] work best when implemented in association with other fishery management tools”; when they “are a supplement, not a substitute for other instruments.”

-Marine reserves will have to be exceedingly large to work in temperate waters. This argument is based on the fact that much knowledge of marine reserves is based from experience in tropical areas, and particularly reef habitats, where species tend to be more sedentary. Those in temperate zones, on the other hand, tend to be more mobile, and thus, the argument goes, requiring impossibly large reserves. Roberts and colleagues counter, however, that the answer is not a few enormous reserves, but a series of smaller, strategically-placed reserves. “If reserves were designed with sufficient habitat representation and levels of replication to protect biodiversity, then dispersed network designs would arise by default. Such configurations would simultaneously benefit both fishery management and conservation,” they write.

-Fishing-the-line will wipe out fishery benefits from marine reserves. “Fishing-the-line” is the term for concentrating fishing effort close to the boundary of a marine reserve. Roberts and colleagues argue that such concerns are negated by, among other things, improved knowledge of dispersal of larval organisms on ocean currents. Such dispersal now appears to extend over distances of several tens of kilometers, well beyond any fishing-the-line fleets.
Redirecting fishing effort from protected areas will do more harm than good. Some critics of reserves have posited that, under normal circumstances, fishing effort tends to be patchy, with some areas heavily trawled and others barely disturbed. Imposing restrictions on fishing grounds will, under this scenario, result in fishing effort being displaced to areas not normally fished. However, Roberts and company contend that such an argument, while not without merit, merely highlights the importance of selecting protected areas carefully. For example, areas rarely fished may be indicative of areas with less damaged habitat and thus worthy of protection, although complementary reserves would also be needed in more heavily-fished areas to contribute to rebuilding targets for exploited species.

-Marine reserves will put fishers out of business. The authors agree that “implementing extremely large marine reserves could create considerable difficulties.” However, they argue, a network of smaller protected areas would be “very unlikely to cause significant access problems for distant water fleets operating far from home ports.”
The authors conclude: “Finally, marine reserves can safeguard against management failure and within this we include the setting of overgenerous, risky quotas by decision-makers. By protecting some fraction of stocks from exploitation, they may be able to prevent stock collapses that would be inevitable if there were only conventional checks on catches. To provide this insurance, the nature conservation role of reserves must be firmly established and legislatively protected. This will require close collaboration between fishery management, conservation parties and fishers in declaring marine reserves.”
Source: Roberts, C.M., et al. 2005. The role of marine reserves in achieving sustainable fisheries. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 360: 123-132.

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Too late

I wouldn't say to late but it took them a bl**dy long time to realise.

It all makes sense, but have the politicians got the will to do anything about it?

I have science papers going back 30 years that state quite clearly that clam dredging is the most destructive form of fishing and should be ceased immediatly, This and previous governments have chosen to ignore the very scientists they have employed to assess the problems.

they can make the whole coast a reserve if they wish as long as it starts 200 yards off the beach and fifty yards away any from any boat i'm in.
theres probably no need to declare sectors of coast sanctuaries ,just dump old cars everywhere to stop the dredgers and outlaw floating nets or long lines ,pleasure anglers could still have their fun ,cars of no scrap value would be put to use and ofcourse the supply will never run out.
once they dredge a few up and realise how they wreck expensive nets trawlers will go elsewhere

[ 12. June 2005, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

yes good idea chesters, mind you would have to clear all the old oil out of the engines and petrol out the tanks before dumping them off your local pleasure beach but i think the local councils etc may not want the cost of this? and then there is the actual transporting them to their as well, even though the benefits are clear to all, especially us anglers and the marine life. still its worth a letter or so to your local mp, coucils, tourism/leisure office, or whoever il give it go here anyway and let all know whatt sort of responce if any? i get, cheers.........

We used to build reefs using old trucks and cars.

First remove engine, gear box and axels, spray with degreaser, attach inflated tyre tubes float to location and sink.

Worked a treat in Half Moon Bay which had a very sterile sand bottom devoid of most aquatic life.

Two years later corals and fish had moved in creating a superb diving location.

My marine knowledge is very limited but I know this works from experience.

They did the same in the Gulf of Aqaba with an old ship, towed it out and the navy had a bit of target practice with torpedos and when I dived on it five years later it was a fantastic reef.

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Tight Lines - leon