MPAs Matching the Tools to the Objectives

Marine Protected Areas are one tool for marine ecosystem management.  As a tool for fisheries management evidence suggests that MPAs are often an important tool in overexploited fisheries or fisheries where direct output controls such as catch limits, or input controls such as effort limits cannot be implemented and enforced.  In many places MPAs may be the only enforceable method of regulating catch.  In regulated fisheries that typify developed countries it is well demonstrated that overfishing can be controlled and good biological outcomes and achieved without areas permanently closed to fishing, although closed areas for specific gears and or for specific times are a common tool.  MPAs can also serve as reference sites for maintenance of more intact ecosystems and habitats.  It is unclear what the appropriate size and or scale of MPAS should be to achieve these objectives.  In the implantation of the California Marine Life Protection Act both fisheries impacts and ecosystem protection were considered.  I will provide a personal perspective on how I believe the objectives of the act and the science were integrated.