MARINE RESERVE CREATION FOR SEDENTARY SPECIES WITH UNCERTAIN METAPOPULATION DYNAMICS

Abstract

The last decade has seen an increase in models focusing on marine reserves as a fisheries management tool. An important reason is that in many fisheries worldwide traditional measures of fisheries management have failed (Bohnsack, 1993; Caddy and Cochrane, 2001). The idea of using marine reserves as a fisheries management tool is not new. Beverton and Holt (1957) were the first to consider areas closed to the fishery. They concluded that when a fishery was overfished establishing large marine reserves would result in a higher yield per recruit level. Nevertheless, they also concluded that large marine reserveswould lead to higher fishing pressure on remaining fishing grounds,which could increase the cost of finding fish. This led them to favor management approaches that restricted fishing effort in other, currently more traditional, ways. Measures used to regulate fishing effort include minimum catch allowances, capacity reduction programs, seasonal closure of fisheries and fishing quota allocations.