Are marine reserves and non-consumptive activities compatible? A global analysis of marine reserve regulations
Highlights
► Non-consumptive activities can damage marine reserves. ► Majority of high-risk activities involve motorised boats. ► Potentially high-risk activities such as scuba diving are frequently unregulated. ► Mitigation allows most activities to be compatible with conservation goals of marine reserves. ► Jet skiing, water skiing and catch and release angling are incompatible activities.
Introduction
Marine habitats and species are affected by a multitude of human impacts including fishing, pollution, habitat destruction and introduced species, among others [1]. As a result, in many places species have declined in abundance, diversity has decreased and habitat complexity has been reduced [2]. Marine reserves, sites that are protected from extractive and depositional activities, are increasingly seen as a way to help address many of these impacts [3], [4] and have been shown to effectively protect biodiversity and enable ecosystem recovery [5], [6], [7]. Currently, marine reserves protect just a fraction of the world's oceans, calculated at 0.1% in 2007 [8], whilst wider, multiple-use marine protected areas cover 1.6% of the global ocean surface [9]. Yet despite their limited extent, marine reserves are widely seen as the ‘pinnacle of protection’ for marine life and as a way to provide resilience against future stressors such as climate change [10].
Marine reserves have been variously defined [11], [12], but their usual aim is to prohibit extractive or depositional activities and to maintain or recover the ecosystem(s) to a natural state in which marine life can thrive and natural processes dominate ecosystem dynamics [13], [14], [15]. Ballantine [11] states that the aim of marine reserves is to “maintain (or restore) the intrinsic biodiversity and natural processes [within the marine environment]. No fishing is permitted or any removal of material. No dredging, dumping, construction or any other direct disturbance is allowed”. Lubchenco et al. [16] defined fully protected marine reserves as “areas of the ocean completely protected from all extractive and destructive activities”. In New Zealand marine reserves are “specified areas of the sea and foreshore that are managed to preserve them in their natural state as the habitat of marine life for scientific study […]. Within a marine reserve, all marine life is protected and fishing and the removal or disturbance of any living or non-living marine resource is prohibited, except as necessary for permitted monitoring or research. This includes dredging, dumping or discharging any matter or building structures” [13]. In Australia the term ‘marine reserve’ is used to define “an area of sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means” [14]. In Wales in the United Kingdom, the establishment of marine reserves which will be known as ‘highly protected marine conservation zones’ is currently underway. These are defined as “sites that are protected from extraction and deposition of living and non-living resources, and all other damaging or disturbing activities” [17]. Damaging activities are defined as “acts that potentially result in permanent or temporary physical harm or injury to species, or cause permanent or temporary alteration to natural features within the marine environment”. Disturbing activities are defined as “acts that interfere with the normal functioning of populations beyond the natural variability of the ecosystem” [17].
Some marine reserve equivalents, such as IUCN Strict Nature Reserves and Wilderness Areas, and the Australian Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Preservation Zones restrict public access. However, the scope for creating such ‘no use’ zones is extremely limited, so it has generally been taken for granted that non-consumptive activities be allowed (i.e. activities which do not result in extraction of a resource or deposition of materials). Many marine reserves positively encourage such uses, which are often recreational or educational, and so many marine reserves play an important economic and social role. However, this creates a potential problem in that, unless suitably managed, some non-consumptive activities have the potential to cause significant environmental damage, especially in marine reserves with high visitation and/or highly sensitive features [18]. To determine which non-consumptive activities are compatible with the goal of complete ecosystem protection a better understanding of the potential impacts of non-consumptive activities is required. This would allow marine managers to make decisions as to whether marine reserves that allow certain non-consumptive uses are protected enough to deliver demanding conservation objectives.
This study examines what non-consumptive activities or uses are prohibited or allowed within marine reserves or their equivalents from across the world, and how permitted activities are regulated. Risks to wildlife associated with the various managed or unmanaged activities are assessed across a spectrum of intensity of use, and management options to improve compatibility with full ecosystem protection are discussed.
Section snippets
Non-consumptive activities in marine reserves
Ninety-one marine reserves or their equivalent (i.e. protected areas offering a high degree of protection from exploitation) from thirty-six countries were examined to investigate management approaches in use. Sixteen activities were identified as commonly receiving or being in need of management: catch and release angling, diving, snorkelling, swimming, boat mooring, anchoring, scientific research, jet skiing, kayaking, wildlife observation, motorised boating, water skiing, surfing, wind
Activities in marine reserves
A summary of the 91 marine reserves reviewed and which of the 16 non-consumptive activities they prohibit, regulate or allow is provided in Appendix A and summarised in Fig. 1. The most commonly prohibited activity (in addition to those extractive or depositional activities mentioned earlier as being fundamental to marine reserve status, such as fishing or dumping, and excluding reserves where the activity was not mentioned) was catch and release angling which was prohibited in 98% of marine
Discussion
It is generally recognised that a purpose of marine reserves in addition to wildlife and habitat protection is to provide places for recreation and inspiration [16], [20]. Consequently advocates have been quick to point out that exclusion of extractive and depositional uses does not mean that marine reserves are off limits to people [16]. Indeed, as this study confirmed, most marine reserves embrace a wide variety of non-consumptive uses. For many it is a key part of their business plan as user
Conclusions
Marine reserves are generally assumed to provide the pinnacle of protection against extractive and depositional activities that damage marine life. However, some activities traditionally considered benign have the potential to damage marine reserves yet are commonly allowed with little or no regulation. Most are associated with recreational use and thereby help generate revenue for marine reserves and provide benefits for wider communities [22]. However, if marine reserves are to provide the
Acknowledgements
Research into defining damaging and disturbing activities for highly protected marine conservation zones was funded by the Countryside Council for Wales, which formed the basis for the introduction and discussion section of this paper. We thank Bryce Beukers-Stewart, Jason Hall-Spencer and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper.
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