Myopic spot-prawn lovers might not like the idea of closing some of the oceans to fishing, but California is creating a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) along its coast for one simple reason — MPAs work. Research by Callum Roberts et al. (2001) published in Science found:
a network of five small reserves in St. Lucia increased adjacent catches of artisanal fishers by between 46 and 90%, depending on the type of gear the fishers used. In Florida, reserve zones in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge have supplied increasing numbers of world record-sized fish to adjacent recreational fisheries since the 1970s.
Halpern and Warner (2002) reviewed 112 independent measurements of 80 reserves and published their results that marine reserves have rapid and lasting effects in Ecological Letters. Looking at these 80 spots, they found marine reserves show that:
the higher average values of density, biomass, average organism size, and diversity inside reserves (relative to controls) reach mean levels within a short (1-3 y) period of time and that the values are subsequently consistent across reserves of all ages (up to 40 y).
There is not enough emphasis (or money) on marine protected areas (which is why I suggested some softcoral porn a while back). Nor are most people aware that less than 1% of the oceans are protected compared to 12% of land. As part of an awareness campaigns, several California groups (including Shifting Baselines) have teamed up to rally support for the new series of marine reserves to be implemented in California. See their latest PSA here: