WWF Cover photo - Soufriere Marine Management Association ...

egan being published. Those studies indicated that protection from fishing could lead to rapid and dramaticchanges in populations and habitats in reserves. As interest in reserves has developed, the number of reviewsgiving evidence for their effects has escalated with new ones being published every few months (PDT 1990,Roberts and Polunin 1991, 1993a, Dugan and Davis 1993, Rowley 1994, Bohnsack 1996, 1998, Attwood et al.1997, Guenette et al. 1998, Murray et al. 1999, Jennings 2000, Crowder et al. 2000, Mosquera et al. 2000,Palumbi 2001, Halpern and Warner 2002, Russ 2002, Polunin 2002, Roberts in press). There have been similarnumbers of books, reports and national assessments devoted to them (e.g. Ballantine 1991, MRTG 1997,Yoklavich 1998, Fujita et al. 1998, Roberts and Hawkins 2000, NRC 2001, Birkeland and Friedlander 2001, toname a few).Previous reviews present compelling evidence that marine reserves are effective conservation tools.Throughout the world they have had remarkably consistent effects. Protection from fishing leads to rapid buildupof abundance and biomass of populations of exploited species, increases average body size, and extendspopulation age structure. It also increases species diversity, fosters habitat recovery from fishing disturbances,and allows the development of assemblages of species and habitats that are different from those in exploitedareas (for examples see Roberts and Hawkins 2000, NRC 2001, Halpern and Warner 2002, Halpern 2003).The predicted benefits of reserves for adjacent fisheries depend on reserves protecting spawning stocksand vulnerable life stages. In short, protection from fishing allows exploited species to live longer, grow largerand become more numerous, all of which increase reproductive output. Since most exploited marine specieshave pelagic egg or larval stages (Palumbi 2001, Shanks et al. 2003), the offspring of protected animals can bedispersed widely from reserves to re-supply fishing grounds. Furthermore, as stocks build up in reserves, there ispredicted to be movement of juveniles and adults from protected areas to fishing grounds, termed ‘spillover’(Bohnsack 1998). At the management level, reserves are predicted to be simpler and easier to implement incomplex multispecies fisheries than single species approaches (PDT 1990). Models predict that populations inreserves will provide insurance against management failure in surrounding fishing grounds (Lauck et al. 1998),and that reserves will reduce year-to-year variability in catches, making management easier and fishers’ incomesmore predictable (Sladek Nowlis and Roberts 1999). Given the declining state of many of the world’s fisheries,and the seeming inability of present management approaches to prevent decline (Roberts 1997, 2000a, NRC1999), the possible fishery management benefits of reserves have been attracting great interest.Evidence for the success of marine reserves has led to growing efforts to establish more of themworldwide. The Philippines has more than 40 reserves that are well protected and hundreds more have beenestablished there (Pajaro et al. 1999). The State of Victoria in Australia declared 13 marine reservesencompassing 5.3% of state waters in 2002 (http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/). In 1998 the Galapagos Islands ofEcuador were declared a marine park that encompasses 133,000km 2 of ocean. Eighteen percent of the coastlineis included in marine reserve zones closed to fishing (http://www.darwinfoundation.org/marine/zoning.html). Inthe United States, two expert panels of the National Research Council have recommended marine reserves beused widely to protect species, habitats and help sustain fisheries (NRC 1999, 2001). President Clinton issued anExecutive Order in May 2000 charging his agencies to begin developing a national system of marine protectedareas of which a significant part would be protected from all fishing (NRC 2001). The state of California iscurrently embarked upon a process to create a network of marine reserves in state waters.As efforts to set up reserves gather pace, claims for their benefits to fisheries are coming underintensive scrutiny. Proposals to establish marine reserves are often met with hostility by fishing communities.Indeed, opposition from fishers is one of the principal barriers to reserve establishment. Fishers are often wary ofreserves because they see them as taking away from their livelihoods rather than contributing to them. Thesenegative perceptions are reinforced by long experience with a growing body of regulations that have failed tohalt fishery declines and fishers are not convinced that reserves will be any different. Sceptical fishers and theirindustry bodies are demanding proof that reserves can deliver fishery benefits before accepting them, whileothers are showing outright hostility towards reserves. For example, in the United States, recreational fishingindustry groups are opposing reserves and supporting a bill being considered by Congress, The Freedom to FishAct, which would greatly limit the ability of regulatory agencies to protect areas from fishing(http://www.freedomtofish.org/f2f/f2f_act/#house).Recently, there has been a burst of new evidence concerning the fishery effects of reserves, warrantingthis review. In it we synthesise this evidence and focus our analyses around a series of questions about reserveperformance frequently asked by fishers and fishery managers. We complement our review with a series of casestudies documenting reserve effects from all over the world. Readers seeking a greater level of detail shouldrefer to them. In preparing these studies we have benefited from the generosity of many researchers who haveshared their latest findings with us. We demonstrate that the case that reserves benefit fisheries has become muchstronger over the last two to three years and fishers and reserve managers can approach reserve implementationwith newfound confidence. People contemplating reserve creation can take heart from the experiences of otherswho are further along in the process. Their experiences prove that reserves can work successfully across a widerange of ecological and socio-economic conditions.7