Departamento de Ciencias Químico-Biológicas, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, Mexico.
Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.
PLoS One. 2019 Jun 20;14(6):e0218651. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218651. eCollection 2019.
Community marine reserves are geographical areas closed to fishing activities, implemented and enforced by the same fishermen that fish around them. Their main objective is to recover commercial stocks of fish and invertebrates. While marine reserves have proven successful in many parts of the world, their success near important marine predator colonies, such as the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) and the Pacific harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardii), is yet to be analyzed. In response to the concerns expressed by local fishermen about the impact of the presence of pinnipeds on their communities' marine reserves, we conducted underwater surveys around four islands in the Pacific west of the Baja California Peninsula: two without reserves (Todos Santos and San Roque); one with a recently established reserve (San Jeronimo); and, a fourth with reserves established eight years ago (Natividad). All these islands are subject to similar rates of exploitation by fishing cooperatives with exclusive rights. We estimated fish biomass and biodiversity in the seas around the islands, applying filters for potential California sea lion and harbor seal prey using known species from the literature. Generalized linear mixed models revealed that the age of the reserve has a significant positive effect on fish biomass, while the site (inside or outside of the reserve) did not, with a similar result found for the biomass of the prey of the California sea lion. Fish biodiversity was also higher around Natividad Island, while invertebrate biodiversity was higher around San Roque. These findings indicate that marine reserves increase overall fish diversity and biomass, despite the presence of top predators, even increasing the numbers of their potential prey. Community marine reserves may help to improve the resilience of marine mammals to climate-driven phenomena and maintain a healthy marine ecosystem for the benefit of both pinnipeds and fishermen.
社区海洋保护区是指对渔业活动进行封闭的地理区域，由在其周围捕鱼的渔民来实施和执行。其主要目标是恢复商业鱼类和无脊椎动物的数量。虽然海洋保护区在世界许多地方已经取得了成功，但它们在加利福尼亚海狮（Zalophus californianus）和太平洋海豹（Phoca vitulina richardii）等重要海洋捕食者聚居地附近的成功情况，仍有待分析。为了回应当地渔民对鳍足类动物存在对其社区海洋保护区影响的担忧，我们在加利福尼亚半岛以西的太平洋上的四个岛屿周围进行了水下调查：两个没有保护区的岛屿（Todos Santos 和 San Roque）；一个最近建立了保护区的岛屿（San Jeronimo）；还有一个建立了八年保护区的岛屿（Natividad）。所有这些岛屿都受到具有专属权利的渔业合作社类似程度的开发利用。我们应用了针对已知文献中加利福尼亚海狮和港海豹猎物的过滤器，估计了岛屿周围海域的鱼类生物量和生物多样性。广义线性混合模型表明，保护区的年龄对鱼类生物量有显著的积极影响，而地点（保护区内或外）没有，加利福尼亚海狮猎物的生物量也有类似的结果。Natividad 岛周围的鱼类生物多样性也更高，而 San Roque 岛周围的无脊椎动物生物多样性更高。这些发现表明，海洋保护区即使有顶级捕食者的存在，也可以增加整体鱼类多样性和生物量，甚至增加它们潜在猎物的数量。社区海洋保护区可以帮助提高海洋哺乳动物对气候驱动现象的适应能力，并维持健康的海洋生态系统，使鳍足类动物和渔民都受益。
