Beyond Marine Reserves: Exploring the Approach of Selecting Areas where Fishing Is Permitted,

Rather than Prohibited

Natalie C. Ban1,2*, Amanda C. J. Vincent1

1 Project Seahorse, Fisheries Centre, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

Abstract
Background
Marine populations have been declining at a worrying rate, due in large part to fishing pressures. The challenge is to secure a future for marine life while minimizing impacts on fishers and fishing communities.

Methods and Principal Findings
Rather than selecting areas where fishing is banned – as is usually the case with spatial management – we assess the concept of designating areas where fishing is permitted. We use spatial catch statistics for thirteen commercial fisheries on Canada’s west coast to determine the minimum area that would be needed to maintain a pre-ascribed target percentage of current catches. We found that small reductions in fisheries yields, if strategically allocated, could result in large unfished areas that are representative of biophysical regions and habitat types, and have the potential to achieve remarkable conservation gains.

Conclusions
Our approach of selecting fishing areas instead of reserves could help redirect debate about the relative values that society places on conservation and extraction, in a framework that could gain much by losing little. Our ideas are intended to promote discussions about the current status quo in fisheries management, rather than providing a definitive solution.

Citation: Ban NC, Vincent ACJ (2009) Beyond Marine Reserves: Exploring the Approach of Selecting Areas where Fishing Is Permitted, Rather than Prohibited. PLoS ONE 4(7): e6258. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006258

Editor: Ross Thompson, Monash University, Australia

Received: February 3, 2009; Accepted: June 2, 2009; Published: July 22, 2009

Copyright: © 2009 Ban, Vincent. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: NB was supported by The Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program and NSERC. We also appreciated support from the John G. Shedd Aquarium and Chocolaterie Guylian through their partnerships for marine conservation with Project Seahorse. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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