MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

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MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 ABSTRACTS OF TALKS SESSION IV: SOLUTIONS AND THE TRANSLATION OF SCIENCE INTO POLICY Chair: Kirsty Kemp (Institute of Zoology, ZSL) 9.00–9.25 Minimizing fisheries displacement in offshore MPA design Jason M. Hall-Spencer, Mariagrazia Graziano, Emma L. Jackson and Martin J. Attrill, Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK Fisheries closures are rapidly being developed to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems worldwide. It is possible to create lose-lose situations with the loss of good fishing grounds within fisheries closures causing displacement of effort that may increase damage to sensitive habitat types, create unintended conflicts with other uses of the seas or forcing fishermen further offshore, increasing fuel costs and CO2 emissions. Displacement of demersal towed gear is highly likely if closures are set up in areas that are currently heavily fished with towed demersal gear and have conservation objectives designed to protect or allow the recovery of features that are vulnerable to the effects of demersal towed gear. Win-win situations are also possible; satellite monitoring of fishing vessel activity indicates that offshore closures can work effectively with good compliance by international fleets even in remote areas. Here we show how remote fisheries closures have been designed to protect Lophelia pertusa habitat in a region of the NE Atlantic that straddles the EU fishing zone and the high seas. Scientific records, fishers’ knowledge and surveillance data on fishing activity can be combined to provide a powerful tool for the design of Marine Protected Areas that minimises displacement of fishing effort. This work is funded by the EC Framework 7 project Knowledge-based Sustainable Management for Europe’s Seas (KnowSeas-226675). 9.25–9.50 Understanding deep sea Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries in the NW Atlantic: links between productivity and biodiversity Andrew Kenny and Christopher Barrio Frojan, CEFAS, UK Over-fishing, together with climate change and other human pressures, is producing impacts of unprecedented intensity and frequency on both shallow and deep-sea ecosystems, causing changes in biodiversity, structure and organisation of marine assemblages directly and indirectly. A general relationship exists between marine ecosystem productivity and biodiversity, such that increased biodiversity is often associated with enhanced productivity and biomass when measured at the regional scale, but when assessed at more local scales and in closed systems, patterns are found to be mainly unimodal. By contrast, analysis of certain biotic components of deep-sea ecosystems has shown that functioning of these ecosystems is not only positively, but is exponentially related to biodiversity. Such results suggest that higher biodiversity in the deep sea supports higher rates of ecosystem processes and an increased efficiency with which these processes are performed. These exponential relationships support the hypothesis that mutually positive functional interactions (ecological facilitation) are much more prevalent in deep-sea ecosystems compared with coastal and shelf-sea ecosystems, and it seems likely this is associated (in part) with increased environmental stability and increased habitat structural complexity. In particular, the importance of habitat structural complexity in facilitating increased benthic productivity in the deep sea has probably been underestimated. This assertion (if proven) would have significant implications for fisheries management in the deep sea, as it highlights the importance of protecting seabed habitats in order to sustain deep-sea fisheries production compared to shallow shelf-sea ecosystems. For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS ON THE HIGH SEAS AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM HELD AT ZSL ON 3 AND 4 FEBRUARY 2011 ABSTRACTS OF TALKS We propose to present a relatively crude unified comparative analysis of deep-sea and shelf-sea ecosystems to evaluate biological, structural and functional benthic diversity in relation to fisheries management approaches. 9.50–10.15 The application of habitat mapping and predictive modelling in high seas MPA network design: lessons from the UK deep-sea MPA project Kerry Howell 1 , Jaime Davies 1 , Heather Stewart 2 , Colin Jacons 3 , Inés Pulido Endrino 1 , Sophie Mowles 1 , Andy Foggo 1 , Neil Golding 4 , Charlotte Marshall 1 and Bhavani Narayanaswamy 5 1 Marine Institute, University of Plymouth, UK, 2 British Geological Survey, UK, 3 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, 4 Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK, 5 Scottish Association for Marine Science, UK Internationally there is political momentum to establish networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas for the conservation of biodiversity. Practical implementation of such networks requires at its base biologically meaningful maps on which to base the complex task that is MPA network design. Species and habitat distribution data in the deep-sea and high seas are sparse, therefore how do we produce maps of use with the data that are available? We present an example from the UK deep-sea MPA project and illustrate its application to the highseas. Broad-scale biologically meaningful maps are produced using a three level classification system comprising (biogeography, depth, and substrate) that captures what is known about the variation in benthic biological communities in the UK deep-sea. As substrate maps are not available for much of the high seas, the use of geomophological surrogates and their biological meaning is discussed; as well as the use of additional surrogates that may be required in order to produce globally biologically meaningful maps for high seas areas. Predictive species distribution modelling is a natural extension of habitat mapping in that it effectively uses integrated maps of environmental variables (‘habitat’ maps) to predict the distribution of species of interest. These approaches can also be applied to biological ‘habitats’, such as cold water coral reefs, sponge aggregations and coral gardens. Fine-scale maps of the distribution of vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) are produced using predictive modelling approaches (Maxent) and the importance of habitat vs species level predictions at a fine scale is illustrated using the example of Lophelia pertusa reef on Hatton Bank and George Bligh Bank (NE Atlantic). The application of predictive modelling approaches in the wider high seas is discussed. 10.15–10.45 POSTER SESSION (TEA/COFFEE) For further information, please contact: Publications and Meetings, ZSL, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK. anne.braae@zsl.org
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MPA Symposium - Zoological Society of London

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