In coastal areas, demographic increase is likely to result in greater numbers of recreational users, with potential consequences on marine biodiversity. These effects may also occur within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which are popular with recreational users. Our analysis builds on data collected over a ten-year period during three year-round surveys to appraise changes in recreational boati...

1. The aim was to determine the status of subtidal rocky benthic assemblages in three marine protected areas (MPAs) of the Canary Islands: (1) La Graciosa; (2) Mar de Las Calmas; (3) La Palma. Sea urchin (Diadema aff. antillarum) populations and non-crustose macroalgal cover were surveyed, and used as an indicator of conservation status in the three MPAs as well as in a highly fished area (HFA-...

On the 20th anniversary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a network of very large marine protected areas (the Big Ocean network) has emerged as a key strategy in the move to arrest marine decline and conserve some of the last remaining relatively undisturbed marine areas on the globe. Here we outline the ecological, economic and policy benefits of very large-scale MPAs and show their d...

Groupers species are extremely vulnerable to overfishing and many species are threatened worldwide. In recent decades, Mediterranean groupers experienced dramatic population declines. Marine protected areas (MPAs) can protect populations inside their boundaries and provide individuals to adjacent fishing areas through the process of spillover and larval export. This study aims to evaluate the e...

In response to heightened threat to Arctic marine biodiversity due to polar ice melt, the following paper seeks to use qualitative secondary research to analyze existing anthropogenic threat to Arctic marine life and to evaluate current efforts on the part of the Arctic Council to protect biodiversity through a network of state-created marine protected areas (MPAs). We conclude that the current...

The human face is involved in an impressive variety of different activities. It houses the majority of our sensory apparatus—eyes, ears, mouth, and nose— allowing the bearer to see, hear, taste, and smell. Apart from these biological functions, the human face provides a number of signals essential for interpersonal communication in our social life. The face houses the speech production apparatu...

In the last two decades, networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) have been created at a rapid rate around the world. Because MPA locations are often difficult to change once established, the design process is a crucial step for achieving successful networks. Here I use a bioeconomic model of seven nearshore fisheries in Southern California to estimate the value of MPAs relative to other manag...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have become a common conservation and management tool for reducing exploitation from the commercial and recreational fisheries sectors. However, the recreational fisheries sector has the potential to be compatible with no-take MPAs when catchand-release angling is practiced because, in theory, no fish are actually harvested. This presumes that the effects of catch-...

Acceptance of marine protected areas (MPAs) as fishery and conservation tools has been hampered by lack of direct evidence that MPAs successfully seed unprotected areas with larvae of targeted species. For the first time, we present direct evidence of large-scale population connectivity within an existing and effective network of MPAs. A new parentage analysis identified four parent-offspring p...

Declines in marine harvests, wildlife, and habitats have prompted calls at both the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the 2003 World Parks Congress for the establishment of a global system of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs that restrict fishing and other human activities conserve habitats and populations and, by exporting biomass, may sustain or increase yields of nearby fis...