ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on October 20, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2008 65(9):1600-1609; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn170
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Dynamics of closed areas in Norway lobster fisheries
1 University Marine Biological Station, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae KA28 0EG, UK
2 School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Correspondence to I. P. Smith: tel: +44 1475 530581; fax: +44 1475 530601; e-mail: philip.smith{at}millport.gla.ac.uk.
Smith, I. P., and Jensen, A. C. 2008. Dynamics of closed areas in Norway lobster fisheries. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 1600–1609.A dynamic, age-structured population model was developed to investigate the potential effects of introducing a closed area to a fishery for a species with limited adult mobility and planktonic dispersal of larvae, using biological and fishery information from a Norway lobster fishery in eastern Scotland. Simulated closure of part of the fishing grounds led to a long-term increase in total biomass and recruitment to the fished zone, but the larval subsidy did not compensate for the loss of fishing ground, and fishery yield was reduced under all modelled combinations of closed-area size and prior fishing effort. Concentration of effort in the fished zone and increased recruitment there led to reduced average size, and therefore value, of animals in the catch, as well as increased destruction of biomass by discarding undersized lobsters. Implementation of a closed area also led to oscillations in stock biomass, recruitment, and yield over several years after the closure, particularly with large closed areas and high fishing effort.
Keywords: closed area, density-dependence, fisheries management, marine protected area, Nephrops norvegicus, simulation modelling, transient response
Received 3 December 2007; accepted 19 September 2008; advance access publication 20 October 2008.