Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Ocean Conservation, World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 17;15(1):7716. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49830-9.
Coral reef fisheries are a vital source of nutrients for thousands of nutritionally vulnerable coastal communities around the world. Marine protected areas are regions of the ocean designed to preserve or rehabilitate marine ecosystems and thereby increase reef fish biomass. Here, we evaluate the potential effects of expanding a subset of marine protected areas that allow some level of fishing within their borders (sustainable-use MPAs) to improve the nutrition of coastal communities. We estimate that, depending on site characteristics, expanding sustainable-use MPAs could increase catch by up to 20%, which could help prevent 0.3-2.85 million cases of inadequate micronutrient intake in coral reef nations. Our study highlights the potential add-on nutritional benefits of expanding sustainable-use MPAs in coral reef regions and pinpoints locations with the greatest potential to reduce inadequate micronutrient intake level. These findings provide critical knowledge given international momentum to cover 30% of the ocean with MPAs by 2030 and eradicate malnutrition in all its forms.
珊瑚礁渔业是全球成千上万营养脆弱的沿海社区的重要营养来源。海洋保护区是为保护或恢复海洋生态系统而设计的海域，从而增加珊瑚礁鱼类的生物量。在这里，我们评估了扩大允许在其边界内进行一定程度捕捞的海洋保护区子集（可持续利用海洋保护区）以改善沿海社区营养状况的潜在影响。我们估计，根据地点的特点，扩大可持续利用海洋保护区可以将捕获量增加多达 20%，这有助于防止珊瑚礁国家出现 0.3-2.85 百万例微量营养素摄入不足的情况。我们的研究强调了扩大珊瑚礁地区可持续利用海洋保护区的潜在附加营养益处，并确定了最有潜力降低微量营养素摄入不足水平的地点。鉴于国际上有在 2030 年之前用海洋保护区覆盖 30%的海洋并消除所有形式的营养不良的动力，这些发现提供了关键的知识。
