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Analysing ecosystem effects of selected marine protected areas with Ecospace spatial ecosystem models


FCRR 2008, Vol. 16(2)
By Will J.F. Le Quesne, Francisco Arreguín-Sánchez, Mirtha Albañez-Lucero, He-Qin Cheng, Victor H. Cruz Escalona, Georgi Daskalov, Hui Ding, Eduardo González Rodríguez, Johanna J. (Sheila) Heymans, Hong Jiang, Diego Lercari, Cesar López-Ferreira, Jorge A. López-Rocha, Steve Mackinson, John K. Pinnegar, Nicholas V.C. Polunin, Jun Wu, Hai-Gen Xu and Manuel J. Zetina-Rejón

Director's Foreword

This multi-authored report presents an analysis of the impact of marine protected areas (MPAs) on the state of the resources of marine ecosystems under different levels of fisheries exploitation. The case studies cover a wide geographic range, from the northern Gulf of California in the West to the East China Sea in the East, and from the North Sea in the North to the southern Benguela Current in the South. The main result - that the impact of MPA’s can vary widely depending on circumstances - is perhaps not surprising. The rigorous manner in which they were derived, however, clearly establishes that decisions on the siting and/or sizing of MPAs can be facilitated by the Ecospace routine of the Ecopath with Ecosim software. Indeed, such studies should be the rule whenever the establishment of an MPA (or a network of MPAs) is being considered.

This required research would be building on reports such as this and gradually overcome the various caveats and difficulties which the authors point out in their study. In the process, a consensus might gradually emerge on the movement speed to use for the various functional groups included in the underlying model, as the choice of these speeds may a crucial factor in determining the effectiveness of modeled MPAs.

I conclude by congratulating the authors on having completed a study whose scope would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.


Daniel Pauly
Director, Fisheries Centre

 


Table of Contents

Director's Foreword .................................................................................................................................................... 1
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................................................... 2
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Methods................................................................................................................................................................... 5
  2.1 Ecopath, Ecosim and Ecospace........................................................................................................................ 5
  2.2 Study areas and simulations.............................................................................................................................. 6
  2.3 Analysis of results ............................................................................................................................................ 13
3. Results.................................................................................................................................................................... 16
  3.1 Campeche Bank............................................................................................................................................... 16
  3.2 East China Sea................................................................................................................................................. 24
  3.3 North Sea....................................................................................................................................................... 32
  3.4 Northern Benguela Current................................................................................................................................ 46
  3.5 Northern Gulf of California................................................................................................................................. 54
4. Discussion............................................................................................................................................................... 59
  4.1 Fishery effects of MPAs.................................................................................................................................... 59
  4.2 Ecosystem effects of MPAs .............................................................................................................................. 60
  4.3 Conclusions...................................................................................................................................................... 64
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................................................... 65
References................................................................................................................................................................... 66

 

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