The call for marine protected areas has risen dramatically over the past decade. Like any conservation approach that involves changing individual rights to public goods, MPAs have been controversial and entailed lengthy, usually contentious negotiations among public officials and stakeholders. Most of the the issues are not strictly ecological but instead center on social, political and economic concerns. However, there is debate even among marine scientists about the ecological efficacy of marine reserves as a tool for fisheries management.The purpose of this assignment is for you to summarize, in no more than 3 double-spaced pages, those ecological issues by presenting both sides of the scientific debate surrounding the use of MPAs and then identifying situations in which you would expect reserves to be most effective.
Here are two papers that show both sides of the marine reserve debate. The paper by Halpern & Warner is a meta-analysis of actual data from in/out and before/after reserves. The Hilborn et al paper doesn't present data, but presents the debate, and presents pros and cons of reserves.
1) Read both papers closely and summarize the key scientific arguments for or against the use of reserves for fisheries management. (You are welcome to consult other literature as well.. Please cite your sources.)
2) Based on the ecological assumptions underlying the application of marine reserves to fisheries management, under what situations would you expect them to be most effective (e.g., what kinds of ecological settings (estuarine, near shore, open ocean), what kinds of species (benthic, pelagic, etc).