Incorporating surrogate species and seascape connectivity to improve marine conservation outcomes

Published source details Olds A.D., Connolly R.M., Pitt K.A., Maxwell P.S., Aswani S. & Albert S. (2014) Incorporating surrogate species and seascape connectivity to improve marine conservation outcomes. Conservation Biology, 28, 982-991.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Cease or prohibit all types of fishing in a marine protected area Action Link

Cease or prohibit all types of fishing in a marine protected area

A replicated, paired, site comparison study in 2011 of six mixed reef, mangrove and seagrass lagoon areas in the Soloman Sea, Soloman Islands (Olds et al. 2014) found that no-take marine reserves protected for eight years had higher fish abundances than unprotected fished sites for four of six species, but the effect differed with type and proximity of different habitats. Fish density of four of six species was higher in at least two of the five habitat categories in no-take reserves compared to fished areas (bumphead parrotfish Bolbometopon muricatum: 2–6 vs 0, mangrove snapper Lutjanus argentimaculatus: 4–5 vs 0–1, goldlined rabbitfish Siganus lineatus: 5–31 vs 0–5, ringtail surgeonfish Acanthurus blochii: 5–15 vs 1–3 fish/200 m²). For two species, density was similar between areas in four of the habitats and was lower in reserves in one (monocle bream Scolopsis spp: 5 vs 8, dash-and-dot goatfish Parapeneus barberinus: 1 vs 7 fish/200 m²). In addition, the authors reported increases in abundance in reserves of a total of 18 fish species (data presented in the Supporting Information). Three small, community-based no-take reserves (established eight years) designed for bumphead parrotfish, and three paired unprotected fished locations were surveyed in April-June 2011. At each location, fish over 5 cm length were recorded by underwater visual census (5 × 200 m² transects) in mangrove, seagrass and coral reef habitats. Fish data were assigned to one of five categories: mangroves near coral, coral near mangroves, isolated coral, coral near seagrass and seagrass near coral.

(Summarised by: Khatija Alliji)