Page 10 - Fishery_Regimes_2005

Some modelling studies show that reserves have low effect in adjacent
fisheries and produce minor improvements when compared with the best
spatially uniform effort-control policies, although other approaches suggests
that no-take marine reserves are always part of an optimal harvest designed
to maximize yield.

From 1997 to 1999 the number of marine protected areas in the EU had
doubled. As a consequence of this quick development, the heterogeneity in
design, objectives, characteristics, management tools, monitoring plans and
involved administrations is as large as the proper number of MPAs. In the last
years, the European Commission has underlined the necessity to manage this
situation and had promoted policy-oriented research to establish the potential
of marine protected areas for marine environmental protection and fisheries
enhancement.

In this context, EMPAFISH project (European Marine Protected Areas as tools
for FISHeries management and conservation), supported by the European
Commission, has as general objectives 1) to investigate the potential of
different regimes of MPAs in Europe as measures to protect sensitive and
endangered species, habitats and ecosystems from the effects of fishing; 2)
to develop quantitative methods to assess the effects of marine protected
areas and 3) to provide EU with a set of integrated measures and policy
proposals for the implementation of MPAs as fisheries and ecosystem
management tools.

The main objective of the project is to promote a basis for responsible and
sustainable fisheries activity that contribute to healthy marine ecosystems,
creating an economically viable and competitive fisheries industry,
guaranteeing a fair standard of living for those who depend on fishing
activities. The primary objective is to investigate the potential of different
regimes of protected areas as measures to protect sensitive and endangered
species, habitats and ecosystems from the effects of fishing, using 20 case
studies where management regimes range from totally prohibited zones (“no
take zones”) to protected areas where different levels of fishing are accepted
either on a seasonal or activity basis and covering a broad geographic area
from the Mediterranean to the Canary island, and Azores. A secondary
objective is to develop quantitative methods to assess the effects of marine
protected areas where these methods are lacking or not well suited to assess
the relevant type of effects.

The work package 2 of EMPAFISH is devoted to evaluate and provide useful
fishery related steady state variables as indicators of MPAs fishery effects, to
analyse MPAs management regime on population parameters of the exploited
resources and key non-commercial species, to analyse MPAs effects at varying
temporal and spatial scales and to study the effects of MPAs on the
geographic dispersion of fishing effort and fleet operational regimes.

Most of the difficulties in responding to the open queries on the effects of
fishing protection and the real role of MPAs as fishery management tools are
related with the above mentioned heterogeneity of designs, target species,
gears, management regimes and monitoring plans. The present booklet
reviews the characteristics of the case studies included in the project from the
point of view of their fishing activities and fleets as a starting point to look for
answers to such important questions.

Angel Pérez-Ruzafa
EMPAFISH coordinator