The global fishing industry has been fighting against the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs), but a study of the largest MPA in North America has found that even full protection of the area’s biodiversity did not negatively impact catches.
Mexico’s fishing industry had warned against potential significant losses when the government in 2017 established the 147,000-square kilometre Revillagigedo National Park.
But a team of researchers from the Mexican Center for Marine Biodiversity, UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Institute of Americas’ Gulf of California Marine Program, and the National Geographic Society (NGS) have found that five years after the MPA was established, there has been no decline in catches.
The study used satellite from government-mandated GPS devices installed on around 2,000 fishing vessels, fish catches data from the Mexican Fisheries Commission, and new AI tools provided by the Allen Institute.
“Worldwide, the fishing industry has blocked the establishment of the marine protected areas we urgently need to reverse the human-caused global depletion of sea life. This study uses satellite tracking of fishing vessels and artificial intelligence (AI) to show that the fishing industry’s concerns are unfounded,” Enric Sala of the NGS said Wednesday as the study was released.
“Even the largest of MPAs, which safeguard entire ecosystems, home to thousands of species of marine creatures, do not impact the handful of fish species that the fishing industry seeks out. The larger the MPA, the larger the benefits,” Sala said.
The researchers found that within a fully protected area, fish grow larger and mate more frequently.
As numbers grow, fish will also spread to areas outside the MPA, where fishermen can catch them legally.
The study comes as the word is gearing up to find ways to protect 30% of global oceans by the end of the decade under the Global Biodiversity Framework, up from less than 10% currently.
Work to identify important areas to protect has been going on for years, but implementing MPAs is often proving difficult, partly because of lobbying from powerful fishing interests.
“The clock is ticking until 2030,” said Sala.
“If the world is serious about protecting the natural world — our life support system — we need to drastically increase ocean protection. Right now, less than 8% of the ocean is somewhat protected, and only 3% is fully protected from fishing and other damaging activities. Millions of species, including humans, who rely on the ocean for oxygen, food, mitigation of global warming, medicine, and more depend on us to act.”
The process to protect larger parts of marine biodiversity was boosted in March, when UN negotiations in New York ended with an agreement on protecting marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdictions.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
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