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The ratification of the United Nations High Seas Treaty will help protect overlooked oceanic ecosystems, leading to an expected large increase in the declaration of oceanic (defined here as waters >200 m in depth) Marine Protected Areas (oMPAs) in the current decade. In many places this will need to be done in cooperation with existing sectoral management bodies. Despite this likely expansion, our current understanding of the ecological benefits of oMPAs is derived primarily from coastal protected areas, which are shallower, generally well mixed, and face different threats than oMPAs. Consequently, the strong scientific consensus for the ecological benefits of coastal MPAs is lacking for oMPAs. Emerging new sampling platforms and methods can help address this gap and inform the design and placement of new oMPAs that aim to conserve both pelagic and benthic biodiversity. Oceans beyond the continental shelf represent the largest yet least protected environments. The new agreement to increase protection targets to 30% by 2030 and the recent United Nations (UN) High Seas Treaty try to address this gap, and an increase in the declaration of oceanic Marine Protected Areas (oMPAs) in waters beyond 200 m in depth is likely. Here we find that there is contradictory evidence concerning the benefits of oMPAs in terms of protecting pelagic habitats, providing refuge for highly mobile species, and potential fisheries benefits. We discover a mismatch between oMPA management objectives focusing on protection of pelagic habitats and biodiversity, and scientific research focusing on fisheries benefits. We suggest that the solution is to harness emerging technologies to monitor inside and outside oMPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, drifting fish aggregation devices (FADs) have revolutionized pelagic fisheries, and are now responsible for the majority of tuna purse seine catches. Here, we argue that by taking advantage of the same proven aggregative properties, FADs could be used to enhance the benefits provided by blue water marine protected areas (MPAs). Using models of commercially targeted fish populations, we explore the potential benefits that could be achieved if unfished conservation FADs—designed as self‐powered devices capable of remaining semi‐stationary—were deployed within blue water MPAs. By increasing the residence time of exploited species in MPAs, conservation FADs will reduce average mortality rates. By increasing the local density of exploited species, they may also improve the function of ecosystems in blue water MPAs. Conservation FADs could, therefore, amplify the benefits of blue water MPAs. We find this amplification is largest in those contexts where blue water MPAs have attracted the most criticism—when their area is small compared to both the open ocean and the distribution of fish stocks that move through them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine Protected Areas are usually static, permanently closed areas. There are, however, both social and ecological reasons to adopt dynamic closures, where reserves move through time. Using a general theoretical framework, we investigate whether dynamic closures can improve the mean biomass of herbivorous fishes on reef systems, thereby enhancing resilience to undesirable phase-shifts. At current levels of reservation (10–30%), moving protection between all reefs in a system is unlikely to improve herbivore biomass, but can lead to a more even distribution of biomass. However, if protected areas are rotated among an appropriate subset of the entire reef system (e.g. rotating 10 protected areas between only 20 reefs in a 100 reef system), dynamic closures always lead to increased mean herbivore biomass. The management strategy that will achieve the highest mean herbivore biomass depends on both the trajectories and rates of population recovery and decline. Given the current large-scale threats to coral reefs, the ability of dynamic marine protected areas to achieve conservation goals deserves more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fewer protected areas exist in the pelagic ocean than any other ecosystem on Earth. Although there is increasing support for marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool for pelagic conservation, there have also been numerous criticisms of the ecological, logistical and economic feasibility of place-based management in the dynamic pelagic environment. Here we argue that recent advances across conservation, oceanography and fisheries science provide the evidence, tools and information to address these criticisms and confirm MPAs as defensible and feasible instruments for pelagic conservation. Debate over the efficacy of protected areas relative to other conservation measures cannot be resolved without further implementation of MPAs in the pelagic ocean. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It is thought that recovery of marine habitats from uncontrollable disturbance may be faster in marine reserves than in unprotected habitats. But which marine habitats should be protected, those areas at greatest risk or those at least risk? We first defined this problem mathematically for 2 alternate conservation objectives. We then analytically solved this problem for both objectives and determined under which conditions each of the different protection strategies was optimal. If the conservation objective was to maximize the chance of having at least 1 healthy site, then the best strategy was protection of the site at lowest risk. On the other hand, if the goal was to maximize the expected number of healthy sites, the optimal strategy was more complex. If protected sites were likely to spend a significant amount of time in a degraded state, then it was best to protect low-risk sites. Alternatively, if most areas were generally healthy then, counterintuitively, it was best to protect sites at higher risk. We applied these strategies to a situation of cyclone disturbance of coral reefs on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. With regard to the risk of cyclone disturbance, the optimal reef to protect differed dramatically, depending on the expected speed of reef recovery of both protected and unprotected reefs. An adequate consideration of risk is fundamental to all conservation actions and can indicate surprising routes to conservation success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Protected areas are the primary management tool for conserving ecosystems, yet their intended outcomes may often be compromised by poaching. Consequently, many protected areas are ineffective 'paper parks' that contribute little towards conserving ecosystems. Poaching can be prevented through enforcement and engaging with community members so they support protected areas. It is not clear how much needs to be spent on enforcement and engagement to ensure they are frequent enough to be effective at conserving biodiversity. We develop models of enforcement against illegal fishing in marine protected areas. We apply the models to data on fishing rates and fish biomass from a marine protected area in Raja Ampat, Indonesia and explore how frequent enforcement patrols need to be to achieve targets for coral reef fish biomass. Achieving pristine levels of reef fish biomass required almost year-round enforcement of the protected area. Surveillance of the protected area may also be enhanced if local fishers who support the reserve report on poaching. The opportunity for local fishing boats to participate in surveillance was too small for it to have much benefit for total reef fish biomass, which increases slowly. However, specific functional groups of fish have much higher population growth rates and their biomass was predicted to increase markedly with community surveillance. We conclude that budgets for park management must balance the cost of conducting frequent patrols against supporting alternative activities, like education to build community support. Optimized budgets will be much more likely to achieve ecological targets for recovering fish biomasses and will contribute to fiscal sustainability of protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]