Marine protected areas intended to safeguard biodiversity in the ocean come in many different sizes and shapes. Some cover large swaths of the ocean, while others are smaller in scale. There are also differences among MPAs regarding their rules, particularly when it comes to fishing. Some MPAs allow certain forms of fishing; others ban it entirely or in some parts through what are known as no-take zones. But are no-take MPAs more effective at boosting fish populations than multiple-use MPAs, which do allow some fishing? A new study suggests that both types can improve fish populations, depending on where and how they’re set up. “There is a lot of emphasis on installing no-take MPAs, which is where fishing is not allowed, but we know there are some contexts where that is impossible or unethical,” study lead author David Gill, a marine scientist at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, told Mongabay. “We wanted to get a better sense of the relative impacts of these [different] types of MPAs, so that managers have the information to make the decision of what is the best approach to use.” The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Feb. 26, used data from 14,000 fish surveys across 216 MPAs to ascertain the respective performances of no-take MPAs and multiple-use MPAs. The authors found that when compared to zones without any protection, no-take MPAs increased fish biomass by 58.2%, and multiple-use MPAs increased it by 12.6%. But overall, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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