{"id":136393,"date":"2021-03-02T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=136393"},"modified":"2021-03-01T17:18:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T03:18:50","slug":"limited-protection-herbivorous-fishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/03\/02\/limited-protection-herbivorous-fishes\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u02bbahu marine protected areas offer limited protection of coral reef herbivorous fishes"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"fishes\"
A large parrotfish scrapes algae from a Hawaiian reef. (Photo credit: Noam Altman-Kurosaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marine protected areas (MPA<\/abbr>s) around Oʻahu<\/span> do not adequately protect populations of herbivorous reef fishes that eat algae on coral reefs. That is the primary conclusion of a study published in Coral Reefs<\/em><\/a> by researchers from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> (SOEST<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

There are more than 20 species of herbivorous fishes and 10 species of herbivorous urchins commonly observed on Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> reefs. These species eat algae that grows on reefs, a process called herbivory, which contributes to the resilience of coral reefs by preventing algae dominance that can lead to overgrowth of corals.<\/p>\n

The team of researchers found that of the four marine protected areas around Oʻahu<\/span> they assessed in the study, three did not provide biologically significant benefits for herbivorous fish populations compared to reefs outside the areas.<\/p>\n

“Marine protected areas are a fishery management tool to limit or prevent fishing to help the recovery and maintenance of fish abundance and biomass inside the MPA<\/abbr>,” said senior author Erik Franklin<\/strong>, an associate research professor at the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a> in SOEST<\/abbr>. “An effective MPA<\/abbr> should lead to a considerably higher abundance and biomass of fishes inside the MPA<\/abbr> boundaries that would otherwise be caught by fishers but that wasn\u2019t what our study found.”<\/p>\n

Other factors influencing the biomass of herbivorous fishes included habitat complexity and depth, suggesting that environmental characteristics of coral reefs may have had a greater impact on herbivorous fish populations than MPA<\/abbr> protection.<\/p>\n

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A large school of surgeonfishes swims over a shallow Hawaiian reef. (Photo credit: Noam Altman-Kurosaki)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Importance for Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/h2>\n

As part of the Sustainable Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Initiative, the State of Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> Division of Aquatic Resources leads the Marine 30×30 Initiative<\/a>, which committed to effectively manage Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> nearshore waters with 30% established as marine management areas by 2030. Currently, 5% of waters within state jurisdiction, which is within three nautical miles of shore, have some form of marine management, but no-take MPA<\/abbr>s that ban fishing make up less than 0.5% of the nearshore waters. To attain the goal of the 30×30 Initiative would require an expansion of marine managed areas to include an additional 25% of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> state waters.<\/p>\n

“Our results suggest that prior to an expansion of MPA<\/abbr>s in Hawaiian waters, more effort should be directed to effectively manage the existing MPA<\/abbr>s to see if they meet the desired management objectives,” said lead author and UH<\/abbr> Mānoa Marine Biology Graduate Program<\/a> graduate student Noam Altman-Kurosaki<\/strong>. “The addition of more MPA<\/abbr>s throughout the state that have similar performance to the Oʻahu<\/span> MPA<\/abbr>s would just lead to a series of paper parks that don\u2019t provide biologically significant conservation benefits while decreasing fishing opportunities.”<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the 2015-2025 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

For more information, see SOEST<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–By Marcie Grabowski<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers found that of the four marine protected areas around Oʻahu,<\/span> three did not provide biologically significant benefits for herbivorous fish populations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[665,109,53,1467,1363,1314,175,158,92,73,9],"class_list":["post-136393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-conservation","tag-coral-reefs","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-marine-biology","tag-publication","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t