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ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on December 5, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(1):132-136; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn201
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© 2008 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Published by Oxford Journals. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: European Symposium on Marine Protected Areas as a Tool for Fisheries Management and Ecosystem Conservation [View the issue table of contents]

Are flawed MPAs any good or just a new way of making old mistakes?

Will J. F. Le Quesne

School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK; current address: Cefas, Lowestoft Laboratory, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0HT, UK

tel: +44 1502 52 4281; fax: +44 1502 513865; e-mail: will.lequesne{at}cefas.co.uk.

Le Quesne, W. J. F. 2009. Are flawed MPAs any good or just a new way of making old mistakes? – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 132–136.

The case for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is often supported by the observation that present fisheries management has failed. This overlooks the fact that, often, management plans are not implemented in accordance with advice and that subsequent regulations are frequently violated. Evidence is emerging that MPAs may be equally open to mismanagement, either because MPAs are smaller than recommended or through lack of compliance. Therefore, it is interesting to ask whether MPAs would also fail if they are not properly implemented or enforced. A population model was used to examine this question. The model demonstrates that biomass and yield are reduced, and can collapse under "bad" MPA management. When illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing occurred within the MPA, yield and biomass declined almost linearly with increasing poaching pressure. Yield was more robust than biomass to the effects of making MPAs smaller than the optimum size for limited reductions in MPA size. Varying the degree of mobility had little impact on the response of yield and biomass. This analysis demonstrates the vulnerability of MPAs to design and governance failings, and the importance of considering enforcement during MPA design.

Keywords: compliance, enforcement, Marine Protected Areas, poaching

Received 31 October 2007; accepted 5 June 2008; advance access publication 5 December 2008.


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