FAQ: Marine Reserves

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What is a marine reserve?

At least 23 nations have established marine reserves for various reasons—to protect biodiversity, manage fisheries, or restore depleted populations of marine animals and plants. Marine reserves prohibit the taking or destroying of marine wildlife or its habitat within their borders. Most marine reserves still allow scientific surveys of the area, as well as recreational use such as surfing, swimming, no-take diving and boating.
• More than 100 marine reserves have been established worldwide.
• Marine reserves encompass much less than one percent of the world’s oceans and less than .01 percent of U.S. waters.
• Marine reserves range in size from less than a square mile to hundreds of square miles.

Currently, most marine reserves are quite small, and the media reserve size is less than 1.5 square miles.

Do marine reserves typically accomplish the goals of protecting habitats and restoring plants and animals?

Scientists have studied the performance of more than 80 marine reserves of many different sizes in a variety of temperate and tropical habitats. A comprehensive review of marine reserves reveals that most well-regulated marine reserves result in relatively large, rapid and long-lasting increases in population sizes, number of species, and reproductive output of marine animals and plants. The review found that the average biomass, or weight of all animals and plants studied, is more than four times larger in reserves than in unprotected areas.
Please contact Kirsten Grorud-Colvert at Oregon State University at grorudck@science.oregonstate.edu for more information.

Why do these changes occur within reserves?

Protection from fishing allows animals in reserves to survive longer and grow larger. Also, habitats are protected from anchors and fishing gear, so they can sustain the plants and animals that rely on them. Marine reserves are currently the only marine management tool that promotes the recovery of entire ecosystems, not just target species.

Why are large populations important?

Small populations are more likely to be driven extinct by unpredictable catastrophes, like oil spills or global warming. Large populations contain more individuals, so they are more likely to contain individuals that are capable of surviving various stresses. The extinction of one species can often result in the decline of another, due to the inter-connectedness of this web of life.

Why does fish size matter?

Bigger body size is one of the most important biological changes in marine reserves because large fish and invertebrates can produce enormous numbers of young. The relationship between body size and number of young is well known. For many marine fishes and invertebrates, small increases in body size can lead to large increases in the number of eggs produced. The bigger and more abundant animals living in a marine reserve can produce far more than their smaller neighbors in unprotected waters. As a result, marine reserves can produce higher growth rates. Due to the migratory nature of fish, healthy, large and abundant fish can spill over into unprotected areas.

What problem are we solving by introducing marine reserves in Oregon’s territorial sea?

There are many threats facing Oregon’s oceans: destruction of wildlife, pollution runoff, climate change, loss in biodiversity, dead zones, fishery collapses. Marine reserves are just one tool for managing our ocean resources. Marine reserves won’t solve all of these problems on their own, but they will have a positive impact in bringing back to health damaged marine habitat. And with reserves set aside as research areas, we can better understand the convergence of all of these threats facing our ocean, and leave the ocean closer to its natural state for future generations.

What are the benefits of marine reserves in Oregon’s territorial sea?

(1) Marine reserves provide insurance. We all have insurance against unforeseen events.  Marine reserves provide protection for our ocean resources.
(2) Marine reserves provide places where fish can feed, breed and thrive, and where human impacts are minimized. Marine reserves conserve and protect essential habitat for fish and wildlife and their habitat.
(3) Marine reserves provide a living laboratory for research and education by providing a benchmark to assess the effects of fishing, oil drilling and other human impacts that can harm marine life over the long term.

Why isn’t the current set of ODFW regulations sufficient for ocean-health protection?

Recent fishery collapses and the long-term decline of fish populations in Oregon, show that the current regulations aren’t doing enough to stop this downward trend, and return our fisheries to a healthy, sustainable level. Setting aside areas for fish and other wildlife to feed, breed and thrive may seem like common sense, but it’s a relatively new concept for ocean resources management. Previously, if a species was in decline, protections were placed on that particular species, but not the forage fish and habitat needed for that species’ survival. Protecting whole ecosystems, essentially creating underwater parks, is a new type of management, but it’s been proven to work in numerous studies, and is shown to have an even greater potential for benefit in temperate ocean waters like Oregon’s.

How can marine reserve help fisheries if fishermen can’t fish in these areas?

Animals living inside marine reserve can replenish populations (including fishery stocks) outside their borders because larvae disperse in ocean currents in juvenile stages, spilling over into unprotected areas. It’s no coincidence that the majority of record-breaking game fish in Florida are caught just outside the marine reserve at Merritt Island.