[Coral-List] The Chagos MPA - what went wrong?

Magnus Johnson m.johnson at hull.ac.uk
Sun Sep 28 14:42:27 EDT 2014


Oh my.

You're citing the Koldeway paper as gilt edged proof that a no take marine reserve will benefit the Chagos???  Really??

I looked with interest at the link you provided Douglas but don't see any citations?   Am I missing something?

I also think the idea of promoting MPAs because they will encourage the evolution of changes in fish behaviour that have been previously driven by non-anthropogenic factors for hundreds of thousands of years woolly headed.  Much, much better to have sensible and well managed pelagic fisheries where the fishers have a vested interest in maintaining healthy stocks and the funds generated by licence fees will support meaningful enforcement/management.  Otherwise you'll get no enforcement and lots of IUU fishing.

Lazy fish are not a good thing to wish for, in the same way as small fish caused by overfishing (not something that occurred in the Chagos pelagic area when it was fished and managed) are not a good thing.  They move around for a reason, because they have to - migration is expensive, not something done on a whim.  I really find it quite unbelievable that this is being promoted as a potential strategy or benefit.  Bonkers. Completely flippin' bonkers.

If you want a good example of a well managed fishery and MPA working together I suggest looking at the South Georgia toothfish fishery (a chapter on this in the Advances volume too).

And if you want a really significant issue to worry about, I'd start with plastics. 

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/are-you-eating-plastic-for-dinner?
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