Before we take a look at some of the benefits that marine protected areas can offer it is important to know about the current condition of the global fisheries crisis: the what if we do nothing?

It is estimated that 75% of fish stocks are over fished or at their biological limit (World Resources Institute).

The FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) records indicate that four of the world’s 15 major fishing regions are depleted and nine are declining.

The fish stock crisis is primarily due to over fishing. 

Europe has a relatively sophisticated, science based fisheries management and yet the North Sea is severely depleted in cod and some other commercially targeted species. Parallels can be drawn from the Canadian fisheries, also sophisticated and scientifically based. The Grand Banks cod collapse cost 40,000 jobs when the government eventually closed the fisheries. The communities are still struggling and the ecosystem is still in a state of collapse 14 years later.

As in Europe scientists and environmentalists warned the government of the over-exploitation. Warnings were given regarding the eco-systems from damaging fishing practices. Yet the Canadian government like Europe took the short term view…jobs at stake! The result is history and the cod collapse has still not recovered in 14 years.

Apart from the simple situation of “over-fishing” the use of destructive methods like sea-bed trawling caused huge damage to sea-bed communities. Not only were commercially targeted fish caught but everything else was also caught including juvenile and spawning fish. The habitats and spawning grounds were destroyed, preventing new growth and new production.

In Scotland we are experiencing similar problems. Scallop dredging for example causes huge benthic destruction. The dredging methods are so inefficient that the dredgers have to cover the same piece of seabed two, three or even four times. Much of the catch is crushed, much of what is left, that isn’t crushed is so badly stressed that it can’t recover. If this isn’t bad enough the dredgers raise huge amounts of sediment, about a thousand tonnes per hundred hours of fishing. This sediment smothers a large amount of the surrounding benthic communities, the communities that are vitally important for the future production of fish and almost everything else.  

No Take Zones and Marine Protected Areas have the affect of leaving islands, oasis’s of fertile areas able to re-fertilise depleted areas. With over half of Scotland’s area being sea, surely it makes sense to protect just a little, not only to protect our future but that of our children?

Marine National Parks or Coastal & Marine National Parks as they are becoming known in Scotland when incorporated with Marine Protected Areas i.e. No Take Zones will give our seas a chance to recover. This recovery will spill over into surrounding fishing grounds.

The list of benefits is huge:

• Protects Biodiversity
• Protects the Ecosystem Structure
• Physically Protects Habitats
• Protects the Food Web
• Allows for Recovery following Damage
• Reduces Fishing Impacts
• Increases Fish Biomass
• Benefits Wildlife Opportunities
• Increases Sustainable Employment
• Allows the Whole Picture to be taken into Account
• Provides for Education and Scientific Processes
• Creates Public Awareness
• Protects spawning Stocks
• Increases egg and larval biomass
• Improves Recruitment
• Provides for Greater Fish Biomass Outside Protected Area
• Provides for Scientific Control Sites
• Provides for Natural Behaviours

These are just some examples of potential benefits. The New Zealand experience of No Take Zones can be viewed on the website of Dr Bill Ballantine: http://www.marine-reserves.org.nz/index.html.

Actual Examples from Marine Protect Areas from Elsewhere in the World:

• Exuma Cays, Bahamas. Queen Conch 15 times more abundant in the Reserve.
• Merritt Island, Florida. Fish were larger and more abundant, less fishing effort required, between 2-12 times less depending on species.
• Leigh Marine Reserve, New Zealand. Predatory fish 6 times more common than outside the Reserve. Huge urchin (responsible for grazing kelp forests, important habitat) declines, whilst areas increased in urchin populations outside of Reserve.
•  Hawaii, Fishes 63% more abundant in Reserve. 

Tsitsikamna National Park, South Africa. Studied fish 4 to 13 times more abundant inside the Reserve. The largest individuals for all species were to be found within the Reserve.

Protection within the British Isles is limited to a few areas like the Lundy Reserve and the experimental area of the Isle of Man; both are indicating an increase in biomass. The fishermen from the Isle of Man have requested that the protected area be kept in place.