Marine NZ

MPA news May_June 2010
Author(s): MPA News

MPA news is a Global News and Analysis on Marine Protected Areas. In this May_June 2010 issue the education spotlight is on our very own Experiencing Marine Reserves programme.
This issue features :
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico contributing millions of litres of crude oil entering the water column daily
The MPA around the Chagos Archipelego touted as the largest MPA in the world, yet the degree in which fishing will be restricted remains unclear
MPA law enforcement
Whale Sanctuary in Tokelau
Phoenix Islands Protected Area starts fundraising; no-take area to increase over time and much more…

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Precis. Fully Protected Marine Reserves : a guide
Author(s): Callum M Roberts et al

Callum M Roberts and Julie P Hawkins, fully protected marine reserves - a guide, answers all your questions about marine reserves. Fantastic summary points and key lessons for the creation of new reserves.

Report on Annual meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium
Author(s): South Pacific Whale Research Consortium

This report from the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium is for the consideration of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission

The Fishery Effects of Marine Reserves and Fishery Closures
Author(s): WWF

Marine reserves, areas permanently closed to all fishing, are frequently proposed as a tool for managing fisheries. Fishery benefits claimed for reserves include increases in spawning stock size, animal body size, and reproductive output of exploited species. Extensive field research confirms many of these predictions. Reserves worldwide have led to increases in abundance, body size, biomass and reproductive output of exploited species. Encouraged by these results, many countries and states have embarked upon initiatives to establish networks of marine reserves. We describe experiences that prove that success of marine reserves is not contingent on habitat type, geographical location, the kind of fishery involved, or the technological sophistication of management. We now have strong evidence that with the support of local communities, marine reserves offer a highly effective management tool. They will be most effective when implemented as part of a package of limits on fishing effort, designed to protect exploited species and their habitats.

Policy Proposals, Operational Guidance for Ecosystem-Based Management of Marine Capture Fisheries
Author(s): WWF

This paper describes in detail the concept of Ecosystem-Based Management in marine capture fisheries. It is designed to identify the main issues and propose policies and implementation guidance to help resolve those issues. WWF has prepared these Policy Proposals and Guidelines to encourage and inform the global debate and provide an operational interpretation of how to apply the principles of Ecosystem-Based Management to marine capture fisheries. The Paper is designed to build on existing knowledge and approaches to develop the concept into a workable approach for implementation in individual fisheries, consistent with integrating global and regional policy requirements into national arrangements for on-ground and ‘in-water’ actions.

Shrinking Fish
Author(s): David Conover

Fisheries scientist David Conover is leading the most extensive laboratory study to date on the effects of size-selective harvesting in fish stocks. Results have been striking - in five generations of this kind of selection, the different categories of fish greatly diverged in characteristics.

Towards Sustainability in World Fisheries
Author(s): Daniel Pauly

Fisheries have rarely been ‘sustainable’. Rather, fishing has induced serial depletions, long masked by improved technology, geographic expansion and exploitation of previously spurned species lower in the food web. With global catches declining since the late 1980s, continuation of present trends will lead to supply shortfall, for which aquaculture cannot be expected to compensate, and may well exacerbate. Reducing fishing capacity to appropriate levels will require strong reductions of subsidies. Zoning the oceans into unfished marine reserves and areas with limited levels of fishing effort would allow sustainable fisheries, based on resources embedded in functional, diverse ecosystems.

Where can Marine Reserves Improve Fisheries Management?
Author(s): Ray Hilborn

Marine reserves are a promising tool for fisheries management and conservation of biodiversity, but they are not a panacea for fisheries management problems. Their successful use requires a case-by-case understanding of the spatial structure of impacted fisheries, ecosystems and human communities. Marine reserves, together with other fishery management tools, can help achieve broad fishery and biodiversity objectives, but their use will require careful
planning and evaluation.

Comparing Designs of Marine Reserves for Fisheries and for Biodiversity
Author(s): Alan Hastings

This report compares and contrasts the design of networks of marine reserves for two different, commonly stated goals: (1) maintaining high yield in fisheries and (2) conserving biodiversity, in an idealized setting using simple models. It is initially demonstrated that cost considerations dictate that the conservation goal would be best met by reserves as large as practically possible. In contrast, the fisheries goal of maximizing yield requires that reserves should be as small as practically possible. Meeting the fisheries goal is ultimately more costly because it suggests a larger area of the coastline should be in reserves, but it also improves on conservation goals by enhancing sustainability for species dispersing longer distances. 

Eco-system Based Fisheries Management
Author(s): Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel

Ecosystem-based management can be an important complement to existing fisheries management approaches. When fisheries managers understand the complex ecological and socioeconomic environments in which fish and fisheries exist, they may be able to anticipate the effects that fishery management will have on the ecosystem and the effects that ecosystem change will have on fisheries. This report explores how such an approach could be incorporated into fisheries management and the guiding principles which could form elements of an eco-system based management of fisheries.