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A Perspective on Marine Reserves as a Fishery Management Tool
Author(s) -
Shipp Robert L.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1548-8446
pISSN - 0363-2415
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8446(2003)28[10:apomra]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - marine reserve , marine protected area , overfishing , fishery , fisheries management , marine conservation , business , nature reserve , maximum sustainable yield , environmental resource management , natural resource economics , fishing , ecology , environmental science , economics , biology , habitat
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are portions of the marine environment which are protected from some or all human activity. Where extraction of living resources is forbidden, these MPAs are best referred to as marine reserves. Often these are proposed as a safeguard against collapse of fish stocks, although reserves may have numerous other beneficial purposes. However, as a tool for fisheries management, where optimal and/or maximum sustainable yield is the objective, I submit that reserves are generally not as effective as traditional management measures, and are not appropriate for the vast majority of marine species. This is because most marine species are far too mobile to remain within a reserve and/or are not overfished. However, in the United States, of those marine fishes that are experiencing overfishing or are overfished, most have come under management within the last decade, employing more traditional fishery management measures, and are experiencing recovery. For those few species which could receive benefit, creation of reserves would have an adverse effect on harvest potentials of sympatric forms.