Spatial assessment of fishing effort around European marine reserves: implications for successful fisheries management.
We examined the spatial dynamic of artisanal fishing fleets around five European marine protected areas (MPAs) to derive general implications for the evaluation of MPAs as fisheries management tools. The coastal MPAs studied were located off France, Malta and Spain and presented a variety of spatial designs and processes of establishment. We developed a standardized methodology to define factors influencing effort allocation and to produce fishing effort maps by merging GIS with geostatistical modelling techniques. Results revealed that in most cases the factors "distance to the no-take", "water depth", and "distance to the port" had a significant influence on effort allocation by the fishing fleets. Overall, we found local concentration of fishing effort around the MPA borders. Thus, neglecting the pattern of fishing effort distribution in evaluating MPA benefits, such as spillover of biomass, could hamper sound interpretation of MPAs as fisheries management tools.
Stelzenmüller
Vanessa
V
Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, 37-49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. vanessa.stelzenmuller@cefas.co.uk
Maynou
Francesc
F
Bernard
Guillaume
G
Cadiou
Gwenaël
G
Camilleri
Matthew
M
Crec'hriou
Romain
R
Criquet
Géraldine
G
Dimech
Mark
M
Esparza
Oscar
O
Higgins
Ruth
R
Lenfant
Philippe
P
Pérez-Ruzafa
Angel
A
D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D005398:Fisheries; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D009792:Oceans and Seas