Evaluation of No-Take Zones in the Galapagos Marine Reserve, Zoning Plan 2000

Moity, Nicolás

doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00244

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Within the limited-use zone of the marine reserve, fishing is permitted in 78% of this coastal area, with the remaining 22% made up of several conservation and tourism areas (both no-take zones; [45-47]). In all open waters (>2 nautical miles from the shore), fishing is also allowed [48]. Currently, a new zonation scheme, which also includes the closure of offshore waters, was declared by the Ecuadorian legislature in 2016 and is in the process of being fully implemented [49].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another issue is the lack of compliance among fishers, who frequently incur into illegal activities, like using spearguns, or fishing inside no-take zones [61]. The existence of overlapping boundaries among different subzones of the GMR has aggravated the latter situation [48,84]. In addition, control and enforcement is difficult in the GMR, as surveillance is costly and challenging, and sanction rates and penalties are undervalued [40,85,86].…”

Section: Bacalao: Vulnerability Conservation Status and Drivers Of Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in the case of bacalao, lack of compliance in fishers has hindered species recovery in no-take zones (see Sections 3.1.2 and 3.1.3; Table 3). In response, since 2014, the Galapagos National Park Service has initiated the rezoning plan process for the GMR [48,86] providing an opportunity to improve bacalao recovery. According to the new zoning proposal (launched in 2016), a new marine sanctuary around Darwin and Wolf Islands will be created, along with 21 smaller no-take zones [49], which include key coastal habitats, like mangroves.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Hypothetical Management Scenarios To Recover Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evaluation of hypothetical fisheries management scenarios using PSA, supported other studies (i.e., [40,76]) which suggested that bacalao would benefit from the addition of no-take zones in coastal waters, especially if they protect key nursery habitats like mangroves, and the protection of spawning aggregation sites. This measure is already being considered since 2016, under the rezoning plan of the GMR [48,86]. However, as knowledge of the location of spawning aggregations sites is scarce, we believe that the protection of coastal waters using spatial closures might produce a short-term positive outcome for bacalao and other related species highly vulnerable to exploitation (e.g., misty grouper, leather bass), or already undergoing population decline (e.g., camotillo).…”

Section: Conclusion and Lessons Beyond This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vulnerability and Decision-Making in Multispecies Fisheries: A Risk Assessment of Bacalao (Mycteroperca olfax) and Related Species in the Galapagos’ Handline Fishery

et al. 2020

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Marine fish populations can be vulnerable to overfishing, as a response of their life history, ecology, and socio-economic aspects. Vulnerability assessments, in this regard, can be used to support fisheries decision-making by aiding species prioritization. Assessments like Productivity–Susceptibility Analyses are well suited for multispecies fisheries, with low gear selectivity and insufficient fishery-independent and dependent data. Using this method, we assessed local vulnerability of the Galapagos grouper (‘bacalao’; Mycteroperca olfax) and compared it with other phylogenetically-related species caught in the Galapagos’ handline-fishery. Bacalao is an overfished regionally endemic fish species, characterized by low resilience, high market and cultural value and high spatial overlap with the fishery. Our results suggested that bacalao is a species of high management priority, requiring urgent measures to prevent fisheries’ collapse. In addition, if current fishing pressure persists, other related species may become threatened in the near future. We also evaluated different management scenarios using this approach. Results suggested that the inclusion of additional no-take zones in the marine reserve, comprising key nursery habitats (such as mangroves) and spawning aggregation sites, would be necessary to reduce species vulnerability and to benefit other related species. Improving enforcement and fishers’ compliance are essential to guarantee the effectiveness of these measures.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Bacalao: Vulnerability Conservation Status and Drivers Of Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Evaluation Of Hypothetical Management Scenarios To Recover Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and Lessons Beyond This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Vulnerability and Decision-Making in Multispecies Fisheries: A Risk Assessment of Bacalao (Mycteroperca olfax) and Related Species in the Galapagos’ Handline Fishery

et al. 2020

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“…However, the no-take status of this reserve is unreported in WDPA. Ineffective enforcement and a lack of compliance within the reserve have been documented as limiting its ecological benefits (Castrejón and Charles, 2013;Buglass et al, 2018;Moity, 2018) and the reserve does not cover important habitat of several endangered species in the region (Ventura et al, 2019). Therefore, although the Galápagos province is fully covered by an MPA on paper, actual protection of this region appears insufficient.…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaps in Protection of Important Ocean Areas: A Spatial Meta-Analysis of Ten Global Mapping Initiatives

Gownaris

Santora

Davis³

et al. 2019

Front. Mar. Sci.

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To safeguard biodiversity effectively, marine protected areas (MPAs) should be sited using the best available science. There are numerous ongoing United Nations and nongovernmental initiatives to map globally important marine areas. The criteria used by these initiatives vary, resulting in contradictions in the areas identified as important. Our analysis is the first to overlay these initiatives, quantify consensus, and conduct gap analyses at the global scale. We found that 55% of the ocean has been identified as important by one or more initiatives, and that individual areas have been identified by as many as seven overlapping initiatives. Using our overlay map and data on current MPA coverage, we highlight gaps in protection of important areas of the ocean. We considered any area identified by two to four initiatives to be of moderate consensus. Over 14% of the ocean fell under this category and most of this area (88%) is not yet protected. The largest concentrations of medium-consensus areas without protection were found in the Caribbean Sea, Madagascar and the southern tip of Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Coral Triangle. Areas of high consensus (identified by five to seven initiatives) were almost always within MPAs, but their no-take status was often unreported. We found that nearly every marine province and nearly every exclusive economic zone contained area that has been identified as important but is not yet protected. Much of the identified area lies within contiguous stretches of >100,000 km 2 ; it is unrealistic to expect that all this area be protected. Nonetheless, our results on areas of consensus provide initial insight into opportunities for further ocean protection.

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