Reuben Cook
What are the advantages?
There is lots of evidence that marine protected areas are beneficial to the oceans. MPAs can be good for certain conservation problems and are considered highly effective at doing so. Highly protected marine areas give the greatest protection by stopping all human activities, letting animal populations recover. They can also help create socioeconomic and ecological balances between countries. Additionally, they force governments to reconsider activities involving the oceans, the effects they may be having, and to make sure that everything happening is ocean friendly.
What are the disadvantages?
MPAs are not fool proof, and many people think they are the best idea ever had. They think that once all human activities are stopped, all marine life there will instantly thrive. This is not the case, and any improvement is because of other factors, like management and design. There are also different ways that animals will respond to MPAs. For example, some fish species may suddenly overbreed, which is a problem for other animals in the area. There is always not enough money given to scientists, so they cannot meet all their goals or have enough staff. Despite this, the right connections and partnerships can help provide enough money.
So, what works?
Sharks are very misunderstood animals. They have many threats such as overfishing, injuries from boats and discarded fishing lines/nets and killings for use of their fins/teeth. Luckily, there are many examples of marine protected areas that were able to protect these animals and their environment. The Bahamas Shark Sanctuary in the Caribbean, created in 2011, is the site of a large, long term marine protected area that helps local reef sharks and tiger sharks. In 2021 a report was published with studies of the movements of the sharks and two habitats across two local islands. Before this, it was unsure whether the marine protected area was having positive influences on the environment. It was found that the large, protected area help conserve the sharks and made it easier for them to have babies.
And what doesn’t work?
Indonesia is a leading country when it comes to repairing coral reefs and has a few ongoing projects. A review was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the coral restoration and whether the marine protected areas were protecting these areas. It was found that most of these projects had not established any goals or included climate change, and they barely had any monitoring. This led to questions about the data and why these certain factors were skipped. So, this example shows exactly what to avoid and why it has to be organised properly.
Still interested? Why not check out these links to similar articles:
Effects of Marine Protected Areas | Magazine Articles | WWF
Do Marine Protected Areas Really Work? – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The 10 largest marine protected areas – Geographical
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