The Benefits of No-Take Zones
A coinciding advantage to maintaining a beautiful reserve and beautiful marine-life in the reserve is the tourism, research, and educational opportunities they generate. In a study taken by TERRA (2003) of the Isle Medes project, the statistics reported that:
• Due to the increased tourist trade from visitors to the marine reserve 30.000 more
beds have been added to the hotel capacity of the area
•Also 740 more yacht berthing places have been created
•120 new employment opportunities have been created
•A revenue of 3 million Euro per year from diving activities and tourist
accommodation has been attained
•A revenue of 2,5 million Euro per year has been created from visitors to the marine reserve. (TERRA 2003).
For this reason tourism has been further researched in relation to marine reserves, and is discussed in a different section.
Should all of this material go into the Economics Section?
Benefits to Humans of A Healthy Oceanic Ecosystem:
Oceans are a quintessential part of our livelihood, because healthy oceans are reservoirs of fish and minerals, with the capacity for waste conversion and controlling the climate. It is also noted that "properly designed reserves can be effective tools for protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems," because marine reserves focus on assisting the change in marine environments (and the state they are in now) to more natural marine environments (Kearny 2000). In a time where there is increasing evidence that "ocean ecosystems are being altered beyond their range of natural variation by a combination of human activities, including fishing, pollution, and coastal development" marine reserves stand at the forefront of returning the oceans to their most humanely beneficial states (New Zealand Biodiversity 2004).
Specific examples of these benefits can be seen with marine microbes and coral reefs. According to Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas, marine microbes hold great promise for drugs and agricultural processes including anti-inflammation chemicals from sea feathers, virus killing proteins from sea grass molds, and cancer cell killing compounds from soft corals (Helvarg 2001). When considering coral reefs, it is important to remember that coral reefs and mangroves are natural barriers against storms and floods. When the corals are destroyed, not only are these defenses wiped out, but key species are displaced, and the overall health of the marine ecosystem decreases (IUCN 2007). To prevent this, marine reserves protect the young corals that are needed to replace older corals that have been destroyed. They do this by protecting the parrot fish that eat the surrounding seaweed and keep it from taking over the area occupied by the corals (Biology News Net 2007). The corals grow thanks to the marine reserve and the marine reserve demonstrates its effectiveness in restoring the ocean ecosystem.
When considering the advantages of a healthy marine ecosystem and how marine reserves facilitate the improvement of this ecosystem, it is also important to remember the disadvantages that stem from inaction. This is when the waters are openly polluted by storm water runoff, dry weather runoff and agricultural runoff. All these factors contaminate the beaches to the point where people who swim at these beaches are noted by the MSNBC news for being at risk "for a host of health problems, including gastroenteritis, respiratory infections — illnesses common in the Third World countries — as well as pink eye, ear infections and skin rashes" (Duswn 2007). The dirty waters also poison the marine flora and fauna that fishing industries are so quick to seize and serve. An unfortunate example of fish contamination is the mercury poisoning case in Minamata Japan during the 1950's, where many Japanese citizens were harmed by the fish they ate. These fish were captured from the Minamata Bay where the Chisso Corporation factory dumped its chemicals, and the high concentration of mercury the fish contained caused serious, permanent damage to the people who ate them (Pollack 1997). It is because of these horrible cases that it has become clear that the health of the oceans relates directly to the health of the people. It is for this reason that ocean restoration and marine reserves are a necessity in preserving our health and well-being as well as the health and well-being of future generations.
Ecological Protection and Recovery:
Over several decades of experience, areas where such stricter limitations have been in effect have shown some of the most dramatically positive ecological results of any management scheme. This benefit can be realized through the protection of relatively pristine areas. For example, studies in No-Take areas of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by Evans and Russ (2004) shows that the biomass of certain fish species has been maintained at levels up to several orders of magnitude higher than in nearby fished areas.
Marine Reserves have also been shown to facilitate the recovery of severely damage ecosystems. For instance, large sections of Georges Bank off the coast of Massachusetts were closed to fishing in 1995. Hermen, Collie, and Valentine (2003) began noting "steady and marked increase...in production" within a few years after the closure. In general, signs of recovery can appear quickly, sometimes within 2-5 years of the establishment of a No-Take Area and tend to persist for as long as protections remain in effect (Gell & Roberts 2003). Furthermore, the benefits of No-Take Zones are inherently ecosystem-based; that is, they are seen generally across a broad taxonomic range of organisms as well as the state of the non-living habitat (Gell & Roberts 2003). These types of positive ecological results of No-Take zones have been seen around the globe, and are well documented in the scientific literature and well accepted by the scientific community.
In addition, no-Take Reserves have significant value for research in that they provide a control against which the outside changes can be compared. This can greatly alleviate one of the historic problems of biological oceanography, providing a better way to interpret results from "experimental" areas that have been disturbed by human activities. Long-established marine reserves provide researchers with a baseline healthy ecosystem that cannot be fully duplicated with any other methods or models. Even areas closed due to severe environmental damage can provide important data, such as the natural recovery rates of various habitat types and species. In particular, such data allows a quantitative judgment on the effectiveness of Marine Reserves in facilitating recovery of fisheries and ecosystems (Hermens, Collie, & Valentine 2003). Such science that only Marine Reserves is useful not only for examining and adjusting the network of MPAs itself, but also for informing and improving management systems outside of the reserves.
The "Spillover Effect:"
One of the most interesting aspects of Marine Reserves is the so-called "Spillover Effect," by which improved biomass and diversity within the reserves enhances nearby fisheries and ecosystems. Beginning with the work of Roberts, et. al. (1997), the existence of such an effect has been noted and studies for nearly a decade. In particular, he noted that the dispersal of pelagic larvae from protected areas enhanced the productivity of "downstream" regions and made them more resilient to change. There are numerous documented examples of spillover benefits, from all parts of the world, ranging from the closed area off Cape Canaveral in Florida (Johnson, Funicelli, & Bohnsack 1999) to the examples in the Philippines (Russ, Alcala, & Maypa 2003) and off the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania (McClanahan, Verheij, & Maina 2006).
Although there is only limited long-term evidence of spillover, such evidence has increasing, especially as longer-term data has become available (R.A. Abesamis et al., 2006). Abesamis, et. al. (2006) proposes that a shallow "decreasing gradient of abundance of targeted fish across a no-take reserve boundary" is evidence for spillover. For instance, if population increases inside a reserve, some of the fish might move away from the more population-dense areas because of resource competition. However, local environmental characteristics can also influence an abundance gradient, since population is usually higher in areas with more resources and in complex habitats (R.A. Abesamis et al., 2006). One study on abundance gradients of fish across the boundaries of protected areas near two small Philippine Islands (which used a control section without a reserve) found that three of four reserve boundaries had shallow gradients of decreasing abundance. Although habitat factors could not explain the cases where there was sharp decline in abundance across the boundary, the evidence, in general suggests the existence of spillover in many cases (R. A. Abesamis et al., 2006).
Another example of tangible evidence for dispersal around marine protected areas was an experiment in which 90 blue cod were tagged and released at four sites, two of which were in and two of which were next to Long Island (R.G. Cole et al., 2000). Fewer resightings of tagged fish occurred in the reserve than outside, but the resights in the reserve were larger on average than those outside (R.G. Cole et al., 2000). The smaller number of resights in marine reserves than in fished areas, despite the absence of fishing in the protected areas, suggests that blue cod migrate longer distances in reserve sites than in fished areas; this evidence supports the claim that blue cod will grow to larger sizes in marine reserves and, through spillover, help supply nearby fisheries through spillover (R.G. Cole et al., 2000).
As part of increasing evidence of spillover in general, it is strongly predicted that protected areas will allow the spillover for certain important species. For example, several studies in New Zealand suggest that a small number of spiny lobsters in a population will migrate large distances (R. J. Davidson et al., 2002). Based on this evidence, it is likely that marine protected areas can protect a signification percentage of the population of spiny lobsters and also provide spillover from the reserve (R. J. Davidson et al., 2002). Another study in the Western Mediterranean using catch and effort data about lobster, as well as data from tagged lobsters released in the reserve, suggests that the declining density gradient of lobster is caused by lobsters migrating away from the reserve (Goñi et al. 2006). While it is possible that other factors could have caused the density gradient, because of lobsters' general inability to move long distances compared to the size of the reserve and its overfished status, the establishment of the protected area there probably caused increased export and spillover (Goñi et al. 2006).
Economics:
Despite common assertions to the contrary, Marine Reserves can have significant economic benefits to society, in particular, the assurance of long-term, sustainable fisheries. On of the unfortunate short-term effects of marine reserves is the displacement of fishermen due to the reduction of fishable waters, the higher levels of congestion, and potential competition. However, in the long run, the establishment of a network of protected areas will inevitably create "optimal harvesting area[s]" with "higher resource rents" (Grafton, Komas, & Pham 2006) under controlled fishing rates. Our particular proposal is designed to mitigate the short term costs, while attempting to ensure that enough of the ocean is protected so that the future potential can be realized.
But perhaps even more exciting are the beneficial economic effects of Marine Reserves to tourism and other non-exploitative activities. According to the NationalMarineProtectedAreasCenter(1995-1996), the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and other marine-related parks and refuges provide an "estimated total tourist contribution to the economy of over 60 percent." Considering the scale of tourism in areas such as the Florida Keys, this is a truly significant percentage. Myriad activities such as scuba diving, wildlife watching, boating, surfing, and snorkeling are part of this large and growing industry.
Oftentimes, revenues derived from non-extractive uses compare favorably with other more damaging uses of the ocean. For example, consider that whale watching globally generates more than 1 billion USD in revenue per year (Greenpeace 2007a). For Iceland, in particular, whale-watching alone generated around 8.5 million USD per year in revenue, as compared to an average of 3.5-4 million USD from whaling in the years before the IWC moratorium (Greenpeace 2003). In acknowledgement of these economic realities, in 2007, Iceland announced that it would no longer be issuing commercial whale-hunting quotas (Greenpeace 2007b)
One possible additional benefit worth pursuing is the use of a scientific journal whose information is researched in the various marine protected areas. The profits of said journal (from membership fees and subscriptions) would be distributed back to the protected area where the data was collected.
*Education:
Education is easily promoted through MPAs. Bringing awareness through tourism is a fantastic form of mass education. School age kids can be educated with field trips to the MPA and school age kids is where the future of our oceans lie. In addition to the fact that kids often bring what they learned from school trips home with them. MPAs make it easier to increase public access to information about marine areas. Visitor centers, museums, and tourist boat trips are how knowledge of the fishery problem will become public.
Indeed, physical access to the reserve is not even necessary for educational benefits. Another major educational benefit is that MPAs are a great resource for collecting research data and excellent areas to set up oceanic laboratories. MPAs are capable of uniting marine research like the Ecological Characterization Project undertaken by the National Marine Protected Areas Center. The information about the project can be found at <http://mpa.gov/pdf/national-system/wcp-eco-character-june9.pdf>. MPAs are capable of great research feats and simply need to be used accordingly. (U.S. Department, 2007)