Marine Protected Areas Content

Do Marine Protected Areas Work?

Katherine E Kerlin — July 17, 2019 - 10:43am

Marine protected areas, or MPAs, are an increasingly common way of protecting marine ecosystems by prohibiting fishing in specific locations. However, many people remain skeptical that MPAs actually benefit fish populations, and there has not yet been a way to demonstrate whether or not they are effective. Until now.

Shark Park

Katherine E Kerlin — July 19, 2018 - 4:28pm

North America’s biggest marine protected area — Mexico’s Revillagigedo National Park — may have been nearly seven times smaller if not for shark-tracking data collected by researchers and alumni from the University of California, Davis.

The park, known as the “Galapagos of North America,” protects more than 57,000 square miles around the Revillagigedo Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site composed of a string of four volcanic islands about 300 miles southwest of the Baja Peninsula.

Marine Reserves a Solution to Bycatch Problem in Oceans

Katherine E Kerlin — August 07, 2017 - 1:30pm

Commercial fishermen may be able to catch more of the profitable fish they want with marine reserves than without them, according to a study in the journal PNAS led by the University of California, Davis. Using marine reserves as a management tool could also help the recently rebounded West Coast groundfish fishery sustain itself, the study notes.

Marine reserves are a subset of Marine Protected Areas. Some MPAs allow fishing, but marine reserves are areas of the ocean closed to fishing and other extractive activities.