{"id":207681,"date":"2024-12-12T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=207681"},"modified":"2024-12-11T15:07:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T01:07:27","slug":"large-marine-protected-areas-catch-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/12\/12\/large-marine-protected-areas-catch-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Large marine protected areas are boosting fish catch rates"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

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Increases in catch rates for fish such as tuna have been demonstrated near recently created Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas (LSMPAs<\/abbr>), including Revillagigedo in Mexico. This shows that LSPMAs<\/abbr> are large enough to protect highly migratory species such as tuna, especially bigeye tuna. Those are the findings of two research scientists, including an economics professor at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa, who analyzed publicly available data. The findings were published in Science<\/em> on December 12<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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John Lynham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“In 2004, there was only one Large-Scale MPA<\/abbr> in the world, the Galápagos Marine Reserve in Ecuador. Today there are more than 20, including Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Most of these protected areas are in waters where tuna fisheries operate,” said lead author John Lynham, a professor in the Department of Economics<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Social Sciences<\/a>. “This means that we can now test, for the first time, the impact of these marine protected areas, especially on tuna species like ʻahi<\/span> and skipjack, which support a global industry worth over $40 billion.”<\/p>\n

Understanding the interactions between LSMPAs<\/abbr>, tuna stocks and tuna fisheries is timely given international goals to protect 30% of the world\u2019s ocean area by 2030 and the United Nations\u2019 Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, an international treaty aimed at protecting biodiversity on the high seas.<\/p>\n

Lynham and report co-author Juan Carlos Villaseñor-Derbez, a professor at the University of Miami\u2019s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, reviewed data from nine LSMPAs<\/abbr> across the Pacific and Indian oceans.<\/p>\n

“We found that the spillover benefits, measured as the change in catch rates, are strongest just outside the boundaries of these MPAs<\/abbr> and get stronger over time,” said Villaseñor-Derbez. “The effects were strongest for the MPAs<\/abbr> that were heavily fished prior to protection and are now well-enforced.”<\/p>\n

Key findings:<\/h2>\n
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  • The research team found multiple examples from around the world of spillover benefits, resulting in an increase in catch rates outside of marine protected areas. On average, this spillover benefit resulted in a 12% to 18% increase in catch-per-unit-of-fishing-effort in the waters near protected areas.<\/li>\n
  • Results across tuna species are relatively consistent, with all species showing some evidence of positive spillover ranging from 2% to 11%, with the strongest benefits for bigeye tuna.<\/li>\n
  • The research finds nations that engage in conservation are also reaping the majority of the economic benefits. For example, close to 100% of the spillover benefits from the Revillagigedo protected area in Mexican waters flow to Mexican fishing vessels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    “While protected areas in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> were not the main focus of this paper, our research also reveals that the Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea Marine National Monument, the world\u2019s largest no-fishing zone, has caused a 10% increase in bigeye tuna (ʻahi<\/span>) catch rates near the monument, in line with a recent finding of a 13% increase by researchers from the University of Washington and the Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council,” said Lynham.<\/p>\n

    “A unique aspect of this research is that we built a global database on tuna catch using only publicly available data,” said Villaseñor-Derbez. “Anyone in the world can download the same dataset we used and replicate our analysis. That hasn\u2019t been possible with previous studies on large-scale MPA<\/abbr> impacts.”<\/p>\n

    The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On average, this spillover benefit resulted in a 12% to 18% increase in catch-per-unit-of-fishing-effort in the waters near protected areas.<\/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":[301,197,1467,1363,158,1026,9],"class_list":["post-207681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-publication","tag-social-science","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