RV: article, "Study makes case for marine reserves"

Marion Howard marionh at coralina.org
Fri Mar 8 11:39:23 EST 2002


11-30-01
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 11:37:12 -0500
Sender: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov

Jim Hendee and Don Baker,

Sorry - I didn't check the web sites again before I posted this.
Apparently
the first one listed is dead but the second one, Sea Web, is active. It
has
a link to Science and other potentially useful references.

Also see the article from MPA News copied below:

*** Citing Benefits of No-Take Areas, Scientists Call for New Networks
of
Marine Reserves ***
There is now compelling scientific evidence that no-take areas -- or
marine reserves -- conserve both biodiversity and fisheries, and could
help replenish depleted fish stocks, according to a consensus statement
signed by 160 marine-science academics from around the world.  Released
February 17 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), the statement is the culmination of a
three-year, international effort to advance scientific understanding of
marine reserves.
"All around the world there are different experiences, but the basic
message is the same: marine reserves work, and they work fast," said
Jane
Lubchenco (Oregon State University, USA), a past president of AAAS and a
leader of the three-year effort.  "It is no longer a question of whether
to set aside fully protected areas in the ocean, but where to establish
them."
The consensus statement recommends that marine resource managers use
reserves as a "central management tool" for achieving long-term fishery
and conservation benefits.  It concludes that networks of reserves,
rather
than isolated single reserves, will be necessary to buffer against
environmental variability and catastrophes.
* Increases in population density, biomass *
The academic effort to develop a better scientific understanding of
marine
reserves grew out of the 1997 AAAS meeting, where scientists reviewed
the
state of the oceans and identified research priorities.  Following that
meeting, several researchers formed a team, based at the National Center
for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (University of California, Santa
Barbara), to examine the effects of reserves on fish populations.
The team's study of more than 100 reserves from around the world
indicated
that after one to two years of protection, these reserves averaged a 91%
increase in population density, 192% increase in biomass, and 23%
increase
in species diversity as compared to reference sites.  The consensus
statement also noted that in the few studies that have examined the
effects of reserves on fish populations in adjacent waters, the size and
abundance of exploited species has increased.
"The results are startling and consistent," said Robert Warner of the
University of California, Santa Barbara, a leader of the academic
effort.
The consensus statement follows the release last November of another
document from scientists in support of marine reserves.  A committee of
the US National Research Council (NRC) released a 150-page report urging
marine resource managers to increase their use of marine reserves as a
supplement to conventional management tools (MPA News 2:5).  The report,
Marine Protected Areas: Tools for Sustaining Ocean Ecosystems, assessed
the scientific basis of techniques for locating, designing, and
implementing reserves.
Megan Dethier (University of Washington, US), who assisted with the
first
draft of the consensus statement, said the statement's brevity -- three
pages -- reflected its intended purpose.  "We wanted to make a
[statement]
that was short and direct enough to be readily usable by the press,
NGOs,
etc., to help 'spread the word', rather than a complex scientific
document
that would not be 'picked up' in the way that this one clearly has
been,"
said Dethier.
For more information:
Jane Lubchenco, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University,
Corvallis,
OR 97331, USA. Tel: +1 541 737 5337; E-mail: lubchenj at bcc.orst.edu.
Robert Warner, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Tel: +1 805 893
2941; E-mail: warner at lifesci.ucsb.edu.
_______________
* BOX: Consensus statement is online *
An electronic version of the consensus statement on marine reserves is
available online at the following websites:
http://www.compassonline.org/frame.html
or
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/Consensus
_______________
* BOX: Conclusions of the Consensus Statement *
-  Reserves conserve both fisheries and biodiversity.
-  To meet goals for fisheries and biodiversity conservation, reserves
must encompass the diversity of marine habitats.
-  Reserves are the best way to protect resident species and provide
heritage protection to important habitats.
-  Reserves must be established and operated in the context of other
management tools.
-  Reserves need a dedicated program to monitor and evaluate their
impacts
both within and outside their boundaries.
-  Reserves provide a critical benchmark for the evaluation of threats
to
ocean communities.
-  Networks of reserves will be necessary for long-term fishery and
conservation benefits.
-  Existing scientific information justifies the immediate application
of
fully protected marine reserves as a central management tool.
>From "Scientific Consensus Statement on Marine Reserves and Marine
Protected Areas," released February 17 at the 2001 meeting of the
American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), San Francisco,
California, USA.
_______________
_______________

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Marion

-----Original Message-----
De: Jim Hendee <Jim.Hendee at noaa.gov>
Para: Marion Howard <marionh at coralina.org>
Fecha: Viernes 8 de Marzo de 2002 08:50 AM
Asunto: Re: RV: article, "Study makes case for marine reserves" 11-30-01

>Unfortunately, that link seems to be a dead one, at least for me...
>
>Marion Howard wrote:
>
>> For Don Baker,
>>
>> Here is a useful Caribbean study.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Marion Howard
>>
>> >
>> >Subject: article, "Study makes case for marine reserves" 11-30-01
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> http://www.msnbc.com/news/665222.asp#BODY
>> >>
>> >> Study makes case for marine reserves
>> >> Fishermen benefit by giving young fish a place to grow
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ASSOCIATED PRESS
>> >>
>> >> Nov. 30 - Fishermen haul in more and bigger catches when there is a
>> marine
>> >> reserve nearby that provides a safe haven for young fish, a new study
>> >> suggests. In a study appearing in the journal Science, researchers
report
>> >> that the catch of fishermen in the Caribbean island of St. Lucia
>> increased
>> >> by 46 to 90 percent within five years after officials closed more than
a
>> >> third of the fishing grounds to fishing.
>> >>   A FLORIDA refuge, created to provide security for the nation's major
>> >> space launch facility, has led to the development of fishing grounds
>> which
>> >> have produced a series of world records for trophy-sized fish, the
study
>> >> found.
>> >>        "Having a protected area near fishing grounds allows the fish
to
>> >> increase in both size and quantity," said James Bohnsack, a researcher
>> for
>> >> the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a co-author of
>> the
>> >> study.
>> >>
>> >> REAL-WORLD CASE
>> >>        Bohnsack said that the government created an estuarine
sanctuary,
>> >> called the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, in 1962 to provide
>> >> security for the nearby Kennedy Space Center, the launch port for the
>> >> nation's manned space program.
>> >>  Advertisement
>> >>         Within a decade, he said, sport fishermen started noticing
they
>> >were
>> >> catching more and bigger black drum, red drum and sea trout. Bohnsack
>> said
>> >> that more world record-sized fish of the three species have now been
>> >caught
>> >> within 62 miles of the reserve than in all the other Florida waters
>> >> combined.
>> >>        He said that having a reserve nearby allowed the black drum,
which
>> >> can live for more than 70 years, to grow to their full size of more
than
>> >100
>> >> pounds. When there was no such protected area, the fish were more apt
to
>> >be
>> >> caught at a younger age, said Bohnsack.
>> >>        Bigger fish also means more fish, he said. Large fish tend to
lay
>> >> more eggs than smaller ones. This increases the numbers in the next
>> >> generation.
>> >>
>> >> CARIBBEAN EXAMPLE
>> >>        In St. Lucia, the study says that local subsistence fishermen
>> >> resisted plans to close 35 percent of the coral reef fishing grounds,
but
>> >> the government did so anyway.
>> >>        For two years, the total catch was severely reduced, the study
>> >found.
>> >> But within five years, the catch had soared. Now fishermen are
proposing
>> >> that the fishing reserve be expanded.
>> >>        "Marine reserves are like money in the bank for fishers," a
>> >co-author
>> >> of the study, Fiona Gell of the University of York, said in a
statement.
>> >> "They protect breeding stocks and supply adjacent fisheries with young
>> >> fish."
>> >>        She said the study shows that fish increase in number and size
>> when
>> >> they have a refuge nearby where no fishing is allowed.
>> >>        "If you want to keep a population going, you have to provide
safe
>> >> havens where fish and their habitats can flourish," said Gell.
>> >>
>> >>  Background on the study is online at
>> >www.seaweb.org/ScienceNovember30.html.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> ~~~~~~~
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