Fish, Fishers, Seals and Tourists: Economic Consequences of Creating a Marine Reserve in a Multi‐species, Multi‐activity Context

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates some economic consequences of creating a marine reserve on both fishing and ecotourism, when the range of controllability of fishing effort is limited and the impact of the reserve on ecosystem is considered. The issue is illustrated by the example of creating a no‐take zone in part of a region where fishing is managed through a limited entry license system, and which is inhabited by two interacting stocks: a stock of prey (fish) and a stock of predators (seals). While the former is targeted by commercial fishing, the latter is not subject to harvest but is a potential basis for a commercial non‐extractive activity (seal watching). Analysis is conducted with the help of a bioeconomic model combining the features of marine reserve modeling and of multispecies modeling. Following a description of the model, results of several simulation runs are presented. These show that creating a marine reserve has more complex economic implications than predicted in studies focused exclusively on one stock and/or commercial fisheries. More specifically, the model shows that the dynamics of the two interacting stocks reduces the benefits of the no‐take zone for the fishing industry, while it makes the creation of this zone provide an opportunity for the development of ecotourism. Due to this dynamics, the model suggests that the optimal size of the reserve is larger when ecotourism is taken into account along with fishing activities.

Large Scale Marine Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation Along a Linear Gradient: Cooperation, Strategic Behavior or Conservation Autarky?

“…Sumaila (1998), Hannesson (1998), Anderson (2002), Smith and Wilen (2003), Sanchirico (2004), Schnier (2005), Armstrong (2007), Kar and Matsuda (2008) and Ngoc (2010), and to a lesser extent, their strategic effects in fisheries (Sumaila 2002;Ruijs and Janmaat 2007;Punt et al 2010). Most models consider MPAs as a fisheries management tool only, ignoring other uses; exceptions are Boncoeur et al (2002), Dalton (2004), Ngoc (2010) and Punt et al (2010).…”

A note on the ecological–economic modelling of marine reserves in fisheries

“…In economic analysis of marine reserves so far, studies have had a single-species focus (see however Bonceur et al 2002 andReithe, 2006), and issues of biodiversity have not been given economic weight. A model that takes inherent values of ecosystems into account could be one way to remedy this, for instance by giving species biomass or density economic weight and value (Skonhoft and Johannesen, 2000, used a similar model in a study of reindeer herding).…”

“…Economists have usually been more critical to marine reserves as a fisheries management option than the ecologists (see Hannesson 1998, Smith andWilen, 2003). However, the economic analysis is still to a large degree done by applying single-species systems (see however Bonceur et al 2002 andReithe, 2006), with issues of biodiversity or habitat seldom being included (see however Rodwell et al 2003, Schnier 2005, and Upton 1 In the literature a large number of different expressions are used to describe closures of areas in the oceans. In this work marine reserves and marine protected areas (MPAs) are used interchangeably to describe permanently closed areas to some or all human activity.…”

An ecological perspective on marine reserves in prey–predator dynamics

“…• The predator grows logistically with intrinsic growth rate ω and carrying capacity proportional to the prey population size [18,29]. It is also assumed that the carrying capacity for the predator population could not be zero due to the existence of reserve area for the prey population.…”

“…Dubey [15] proposed a mathematical model to study the role of a reserved zone on the dynamics of predator-prey system. Many of the benefits associated with MPAs have been widely investigated and the field is an active area of research in theoretical ecology [16][17][18][19]. However, scientists and researchers consider the increasing scope of closed areas for the conservation of marine biodiversity [20][21][22].…”