No-take Marine Reserves Are Necessary

A Recreational fisher includes the kid catching his first fish, the diver who brings home a bunch of crayfish (local NZ rock lobster) for his family, the family who visits the ocean once a year, and the people who haul a basket of shellfish away everyday. It also includes the Game Fishers, the trophy hunters and competitors in the big game contests.

It includes everyone who lives in the area, who visits, who never goes fishing, to feeds their whole family (by choice). It does not include the people who have to survive by fishing - such as in Africa or the Pacific Islands (for examples of marine reserves destroying livelihoods versus being created voluntarily in response to declining fish stocks... see what I will write about later :D In the Future!)
These are technically recreational fishers by most laws, but I consider Subsistence fishers and am not including in my category of Recreational fishers.

Also, local laws as to how many of each species you can catch each day before it is a) illegal or b) commercial take varies with every country. It also does not always reflect what the species can sustain.

There is a tendency - a very accurate tendency, for the most part - to blame commercial fishing for the lack of fish. So when quotas are set out that also limit recreational fishers, and when marine reserves are created to ban EVERYONE, people tend to get upset. It would be far, far easier to establish reserves if they allowed 'normal' people to fish.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Please trust me on this a moment - most scientists and conservationsits would love it to work - it would make life so much easier for them. But it doesn't.

I would like to submit a few points for your consideration (I am drawing them from knwon studies and reserve histories, and arguments).
1. How many people live in your area? How many of them are likely to fish everyday, and how many overall would that mean?

2. Do commercial fishers come right up to the coast? If they don't, then the only people taking those fish are recreational fishers. The reason there are no shellfish in the sand? It's not the trawler out in the ocean.

3. If the reserve starts to become known as the place for fish, more people will come. The Poor Knights Islands were half a day's travel out into the sea, and trophy hunters came from overseas to take part in the big game fishing. And it did not recover. It got worse. The numbers of fishers targeting the marlin, the snapper, the sharks increased. Even today, there are few large snapper, (and by large, I mean of legal size, between 30 and 50cm, Truly large snapper - a metre or more - can be seen at Goat Island, which has been protected for longer, but rarely elsewhere.)

Another example: a local reserve north of Auckland (Long Bay) - the Conservation Department (DoC) has caught people hauling several thousand dollars worth of pipi and tokerau (local shellfish).away from the reserve. At any other beach in the area, you're lucky to find two pipi if you dig for ten minutes. At this reserve you can get bucketloads in the same time. This is a major tourist destination that sees thousands of visitors a day. If they all took one fish, there would be nothing left. If the shellfish are present in such large numbers, at such a busy location, and absent everywhere else and the only difference is people can't take them then that should say something.

I should also mention that these are NOT commercial species. The only reason you can't find them anywhere else is because families have taken them.

4. Game hunters go for the big fish. The big fish are the ones we need to actually breed.

5. Disturbance is always going to be a factor, with visitors, but fishing disturbance and damage is worse.

6. Selective fishing of targetted species doesn't really help. Most fishing targets the top of the food chain first - you can tell how much damage has been doen to the local fish stocks by what the main fisheries are! Tuna before cod, before pilchards, before krill! And if you kill off all the big predators... well, there's the urchin barrens example.

Sunset Sailing by NZPhotography
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The majority of protected marine areas in the world are simply paper parks. They exist on paper, but are not enforced. In many cases, the local fishermen and communities may not even know it is meant to be protected!

In almost every situation, in a first world country, this situation will not arise, as very few people there are dependent on fishing simply to survive. However, in third world countries - such as Africa when the government imposes a Reserve on a section of the coastline, with no regard for the local villagers who survive on those fish, it is very bad. It puts them in the position of breaking the law, or starving to death.
This was a case of poor management and communication, in many cases, reserves have worked well when the locals are involved or compensated somehow, but here they had nowhere to go.

China is another place where marine reserves cause trouble. While there are many, they often conflict with the local economy - China is a developing nation with the majority of its population and industry being coastal.

Unfortunately, if understandably, the first response of anyone - commercial, subsidence, or recreational - fishing in an area that is proposed as a marine reserve is 'you can't take my fish!'

The Spillover effect
The spillover effect is one argument used to try and persuade (mainly commercial) fishing interests to allow no take reserves. It goes like this....

Area is closed, fish recover. Fish live longer, and in great numbers. As the fish get bigger and more numerous, they produce more eggs (egg production increases exponentially with size in many species). This means that the babies spill out into the surrounding ocean and increase the catch rates there.

Is it right?
Yes. No. Maybe.

YES. Fish will probably produce more eggs. How many, and how soon depends on the species.
YES. Some of them will migrate, or drift, over the edge of the reserve. Again, how many, and how far they go, depend on the species - as well as the currents and habitat. And it depends on the size of the reserve. Can it support a big enough population? Is it small enough that the fish will ever reach the edge? Or is it so small that all the fish wander out and get caught?

Some studies have shown better catches for the whole area - more and larger fish. And some have not. But usually, the fish in the reserve boost the stocks nearby enough to make up for the 'lost' fishing area.

The first marine reserve in the world was Goat Island - also known as Leigh, for the nearby township, and officially, but never described as, Cape-Rodney to Okakari Point Reserve, in the north island of New Zealand.
Goat Island holds a unique position as being the first established MR in New Zealand in 1977, and resoundingly successful - biodiversity wise, as well as being highly accessible to the public. Located about 100km north of Auckland, it is a popular weekend and holiday destination and sees () visitors a year.
Marine Reserves provide many benefits - evident only two years after the inception of Goat Island were the possibilities for research that required no outside interference; enjoyment in nature and improved biodiversity, and an increasing interest from the public, with the reserve serving as a focal point for further education (Ballantine, 1979). They also act as buffers against management error, and disasters (Ballantine, 1999).
However, without local community support and awareness, marine reserves run into community opposition and can fall foul of commercial and political interests (Qui et al., 2009). In New Zealand, inconsistent legislation and separate processes have let to spatial conflicts and an allocation race (Bess & Rallapudi, 2007). the 'right to fish', regardless of need, forms the core of the opposition in local communities, along with a fear of losing public access (e.g. Option4.co.nz). Changing local attitudes would be necessary to create secure reserves (Bartlett et al., 2009). This has been an ongoing issue - from Ballantine (1979) to the current day, however is now much easier, with examples of successful reserves in the public awareness.
The second reserve - Cathedral Cove (Te Whanganui A Hei/Hahei) - was not created until 1993 (Wolfenden et al., 1994) and currently there are thirty two reserves, including the Kermadecs and Auckland islands. 0.19% of the territorial sea is protected, increasing to 7.5% with the inclusion of the large, remote, island reserves. Over half were created within the last ten years are located inconsistently around the coast and in different habitats.
Prior to Goat Island's proposal, there was no legal structure for the creation of a reserve and it took twelve years to be approved. The Marine Reserves Act was created in 1971, and required a non-governmental organisation to propose and research potential sites, leaving only the final approval up to the Government. While this has the advantage of needing community support (White & Vogt, 2000) to get very far, it also has the disadvantage of being directly hampered by community opposition, commercial and political interference and a lack of a regional or national network. Only recently, in 2006, has the Marine Protected areas policy been established, to provide support and guidance for a national strategy. The New Zealand government has also committed to 'somehow' protecting 10% of New Zealand's waters by 2010 and creating an MPA network by 2020 (Ministry of Fisheries, 2005). This is a critical period for public awareness and involvement.

Worldwide, societal interest in conserving biodiversity is increasing (Langholz & Lassoie, 2001), which has to lead to higher levels of ecotourism. Ecotourism is characterised by low environmental impact and higher levels of local employment. It is clear that there are significant benefits to creating more reserves.

"I take visitors out to the Poor Knights today, and they're so excited by the fish life they're just about walking on water ... And all I can think is that they're seeing a crumb, a skerrick of what it once was."

Wade Doak Poor Knights - National Geographic

To be fair, few realized the extent to which recreational fishing can damage marine ecosystems. Commercial fishing, with its capacity to scoop up whole schools in a single trawl, or deploy thousands of hooks in a night, was perceived to be the enemy, not a bunch of weekend anglers trying to catch a feed. Only later, as fish numbers dwindled and some species became rare, was the scale of the problem realized.

A curious thing happens when fish stocks decline: People who aren't aware of the old levels accept the new ones as normal. Over generations, societies adjust their expectations downward to match prevailing conditions. The concept of a healthy ocean drifts from greater to lesser abundance, richer to poorer biodiversity.

To be written!

To be written!

also To be written!