MPA News
MPA Perspective: Deep-Sea Vents Should Be World Heritage Sites
Editor’s note: Magnus Johnson is head of the Scarborough Centre for Coastal Studies, University of Hull (UK). For readers interested in the scientific literature he cites in the following essay, a version containing literature citations is available online. By Magnus Johnson, University of Hull, UK I am not someone who would be termed an ardent supporter of MPAs. I worry that they are too easy a tool for administrators to apply to any resource or conservation problem. To a non-biologist (and even to some biologists), the attractions of the erroneous equilibrium paradigm are such that a superficial understanding of what…
Letter to the Editor
Dear MPA News: I was surprised by the Georges Bank scallop example cited by both Halpern and Agardy (MPA News 6:9) in their recent pieces on the fisheries benefits of marine reserves. At first I thought I had missed something, so I looked at the evidence Halpern cited (MPA News 2:3). The cited article specifically says the jury was (is?) still definitely out on whether the observed year/s of high recruitment in areas around the Georges Bank closures are really due to the closures or just happened to be good recruitment periods (for example due to climate, etc). That is…
Notes & News
Website: information on Great Barrier Reef re-zoning The process of re-zoning the 344,000-km2 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park required years of public consultation and planning by officials (MPA News 5:10), culminating in July 2004 when the new zoning plan took effect. Lessons from this planning effort may be adaptable to other MPA-planning processes worldwide. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has launched a website with links to information on all features of the re-zoning process, including biophysical operating principles, socioeconomic evaluations, a financial assistance program for stakeholders affected by new closures, and more. The website, to be updated as…
The Science and Politics of Marine Reserves: When Planners Raise Community Hopes of Higher Fishery Yields
There is broad scientific agreement that no-take marine reserves can generate benefits, such as protection of biodiversity. There is debate, however, over evidence that these benefits include larger yields for nearby fisheries. The “reserve effect” for fisheries – thought to occur via export of larvae and adult fish from a reserve to fished areas – is difficult to measure, due in part to the complexity of ocean systems (MPA News 5:6 and 5:7). Depending on local conditions and the species of interest, positive impacts of reserves on fishery yields could take years to occur and be detected. In some cases…
Scientific Opinion on Promises of Higher Fishery Yields
MPA News asked three scientists what they considered to be fair or unfair assurances to stakeholders on the fishery effects of marine reserves. The scientists, who have each published previously in MPA News, were: Trevor Willis of the University of Bologna, Italy (see “The Science of Marine Reserves: How Much of It Is Science?”, MPA News 5:6) Ben Halpern of the University of California Santa Barbara, USA (see “Moving the Discussion About Marine Reserve Science Forward”, MPA News 5:7) Tundi Agardy of Sound Seas, a US-based NGO (see “Dangerous Targets And Inflexible Stances Threaten Marine Conservation Efforts”, MPA News 3:11)…
Bottom Trawling Prohibited Below 1000 Meters in Mediterranean
All areas of the Mediterranean and Black Sea deeper than 1000 m will be permanently off-limits to bottom trawling, according to a decision in late February by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the main intergovernmental fishery management body in the region. The binding measure will take effect in late June 2005, although individual GFCM member states may object in the meantime to its applying to them. The prohibition was influenced by a comprehensive study, conducted in 2004 by WWF and IUCN, on the status of deep-sea ecosystems in the Mediterranean basin. The study recommended as a precautionary…
Notes & News
Queensland designates three MPAs with indigenous help The Australian state of Queensland has negotiated with indigenous communities to designate three new MPAs to protect against the effects of coastal development on important underwater habitats. Called Fish Habitat Areas, or FHAs, the sites are the newest of 71 such areas designated throughout coastal Queensland (MPA News 6:3), and the first to involve indigenous interests in planning. Any activities requiring the disturbance of habitats within FHAs are either prohibited or require special authorization, depending on site regulations. Fishing is allowed. The new FHAs, all in north Queensland, are the result of three…
Letter to the Editor
Dear MPA News: Incorporating the potential impacts of climate change into MPA planning is certainly a wise approach. Often we focus on the root causes of climate change while forgetting that there are tangible actions we can take in response to ecosystem change. In your March issue, MPA News published a list of six things for managers to consider (“Advice for coral MPA managers on managing for climate change”). I would like to suggest a seventh item. In American Samoa, a US territory in the central South Pacific, managers have been encouraging, investing in, and facilitating research into areas of…
Climate Change and Ocean Warming: Preparing MPAs for It
Earth’s climate and ocean systems are in a continual state of change. Such variability occurs on different scales of space and time, from daily weather to decades-long patterns in regional sea surface temperatures. Although much of this fluctuation is natural, it is now believed that change can be induced by human activity as well. Greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, for example, can cause warming of the planet’s surface, including its oceans. Average ocean temperature, from sea surface down to 10,000 feet (3050 meters), has risen by 0.05 degrees Celsius since the 1950s, according to researchers. Whether or…
Project Is Underway to Create Global MPA Database
Planning a network of marine protected areas requires knowledge of where MPAs currently exist, so that gaps in habitat protection can be addressed. Amid recent calls by governmental and conservation leaders for a worldwide network of MPAs by 2012 (MPA News 4:3 and 5:4), a project is underway to build an enhanced global database of MPAs, including each site’s location, regulations, and habitats. The goals of the project are to use the database to help design scenarios for a worldwide network of MPAs, and to track progress toward building such a network. Louisa Wood – a Ph.D. candidate with the…