WP5 Status Report

1. WP5 Status Report Will Le Quesne Nick Polunin School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, UK.

2. WP5 Status Report: Introduction • Overview • Science • ‘Bad MPAs’ • Ecospace Simulations • MPA Tool • Outputs • Budget

3. WP5 Status Report: Science Are bad MPAs any good, or just a new way of making old mistakes? Current fisheries management is failing to sustain yields and biomass. Classical fisheries management has failed, we need new tools. MPAs are a new tool to successfully manage fisheries. However…… Many MPAs are smaller than advised, allow ‘exemption fleets’ And are not fully enforced. Thus comparing a modelled ‘optimum’ MPA with present fishery regulations as ACTULLY implemented is not comparing like with like.

4. WP5 Status Report: Science Is this a meaningful study? • Moderate to high poaching occurs in 65% of coral reef MPAs (Mora et al 2006). • Non-compliance with MPA regulations has been reported in MPAs in Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Mediterranean, Asia , Australia and Pacific Islands. • The Plaice Box was smaller than initially considered in modelling studies. • Design of the MPA network of SE Australia criticised for yielding too much to extractive industry lobbying. • Regular anecdotal reports of MPA size and regulations being degraded during the design process due to lobbying by representatives of extractive industries. • ‘Bad’ MPAs are Common!

5. WP5 Status Report: Science How did the study work? • spatially explicit dynamic age-structured population model • population overfished and the optimum MPA size determined • examined the effect of poaching on the long term yield • examined the effect of size reduction on the long term yield • run for a range of mobilities and fishing mortalities (F).

6. WP5 Status Report: Science Poaching: Official Yield Yield (kg) Poaching as proportion of Fbase

7. WP5 Status Report: Science Poaching: Official Yield + Total Yield Yield (kg) Poaching as proportion of Fbase

8. WP5 Status Report: Science Size Reduction: Total Yield Yield (kg) % reduction in MPA size

9. WP5 Status Report: Science Conclusions • Numerous examples show that MPAs are susceptible to reduction in size and regulations during the planning stages, and that poaching frequently occurs. • The gains in yield expected from an MPA are reduced if the MPA is smaller than recommended, or if poaching occurs. • MPAs are vulnerable to the same problems of limited application as previous classical management regulations. • Need to make sure MPAs are properly planned and enforced to avoid facing the same problems with limited application of management regulations as currently besets fisheries management.

10. WP5 Status Report: Science Ecospace Simulations: • Simulating existing (and proposed) MPAs (D5.2) • Testing objective criteria for MPA placement (D5.3)

11. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: • Three MPAs in each LME Analyses run as comparative analyses to emphasise qualitative results

12. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: • Northern Benguela Current: Juvenile Hake MPA

13. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: • Northern Benguela Current: Juvenile Hake MPA

14. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: • Northern Benguela Current: Juvenile Hake MPA

15. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: • Northern Benguela Current: Juvenile Hake MPA

16. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations:

17. WP5 Status Report: Science

18. WP5 Status Report: Science

19. WP5 Status Report: Science

20. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.2 Ecospace Simulations: Conclusions • No consistent response from any of the indicators to the establishment of MPAs across all systems • MPAs are associated with many trade-offs • Fishery - Biodiversity • Biodiversity - Biodiversity • Fishery - Fishery • MPAs can lead to win-win situation, but also they can lead to lose-lose

21. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.3 Ecospace Simulations: Testing Objective Criteria for MPA Placement • Co-varying size and location: • Highest / lowest landings • Habitats • Random selection

22. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.3 Ecospace Simulations:

23. WP5 Status Report: Science D5.3 Ecospace Simulations: Bugged

24. WP5 Status Report: Science Northern Gulf of California:

25. WP5 Status Report: Science North Sea: 333% 518%

26. WP5 Status Report: MPA Tool MPA Design Tool:

27. WP5 Status Report: Outputs Publications:

28. WP5 Status Report: Outputs Other outputs: WP5 Members have given: • 6 oral presentations at the International symposium on MPAs, Murcia Spain. • 1 oral presentation at the 6th European Conference on Ecological Modelling, Trieste, Italy • 2 invited talks on at the workshop on “Biogeochemical processes and fish dynamics in food web models for end-to-end conceptualisation of marine ecosystems”, Trieste, Italy • 1 invited keynote talk at the “Towards a coherent network of MPAs” conference, Scarborough, UK. • invited to input to House of Commons policy briefing document, UK.

29. WP5 Status Report: Budget Budget Status: 28,942 Euros left to spend

30. So long, and thanks for all the fish!