Interdisciplinary PhD program, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Management Science & Environmental Science, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
PLoS One. 2020 Jan 23;15(1):e0228094. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228094. eCollection 2020.
Assessments of the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) usually assume that fishing patterns change exclusively due to the implementation of an MPA. This assumption increases the risk of erroneous conclusions in assessing marine zoning, and consequently counter-productive management actions. Accordingly, it is important to understand how fishers respond to a combination of the implementation of no-take zones, and various climatic and human drivers of change. Those adaptive responses could influence the interpretation of assessment of no-take zone effectiveness, yet few studies have examined these aspects. Indeed, such analysis is often unfeasible in developing countries, due to the dominance of data-poor fisheries, which precludes full examination of the social-ecological outcomes of MPAs. In the Galapagos Marine Reserve (Ecuador), however, the availability of long-term spatially explicit fishery monitoring data (1997-2011) for the spiny lobster fishery allows such an analysis. Accordingly, we evaluated how the spatiotemporal allocation of fishing effort in this multiple-use MPA was affected by the interaction of diverse climatic and human drivers, before and after implementation of no-take zones. Geographic information system modelling techniques were used in combination with boosted regression models to identify how these drivers influenced fishers' behavior. Our results show that the boom-and-bust exploitation of the sea cucumber fishery and the global financial crisis 2007-09, rather than no-take zone implementation, were the most important drivers affecting the distribution of fishing effort across the archipelago. Both drivers triggered substantial macro-scale changes in fishing effort dynamics, which in turn altered the micro-scale dynamics of fishing patterns. Fishers' adaptive responses were identified, and their management implications analyzed. This leads to recommendations for more effective marine and fishery management in the Galapagos, based on improved assessment of the effectiveness of no-take zones.
评估海洋保护区 (MPA) 的有效性通常假设，捕鱼模式的变化完全是由于 MPA 的实施。这种假设增加了在评估海洋分区时得出错误结论的风险，从而导致管理措施适得其反。因此，了解渔民如何应对禁渔区的实施以及各种气候和人为变化驱动因素的综合影响是很重要的。这些适应性反应可能会影响对禁渔区效果的评估，但很少有研究检验这些方面。事实上，由于数据匮乏的渔业占据主导地位，这些分析在发展中国家往往是不可行的，这使得无法充分考察 MPA 的社会-生态结果。然而，在加拉帕戈斯海洋保护区（厄瓜多尔），长期的空间明确渔业监测数据（1997-2011 年）可用于龙虾渔业，这使得这种分析成为可能。因此，我们评估了在实施禁渔区前后，多种用途的 MPA 中捕鱼努力的时空分配是如何受到各种气候和人为驱动因素的相互作用的影响的。我们使用地理信息系统建模技术和增强回归模型相结合的方法，确定这些驱动因素如何影响渔民的行为。研究结果表明，海参渔业的繁荣-萧条式开发和 2007-09 年全球金融危机，而不是禁渔区的实施，是影响整个群岛捕鱼努力分布的最重要驱动因素。这两个因素都引发了捕鱼努力动态的大规模变化，从而改变了捕鱼模式的微观动态。识别了渔民的适应性反应，并分析了其管理意义。这为加拉帕戈斯群岛的海洋和渔业管理提供了更有效的建议，从而可以基于对禁渔区效果的更好评估。
