galapagos
CNH Tours - Cultural and Natural Heritage Tours Galapagos
Monday November 6, 2017
Tuna fleets benefit from Galapagos marine reserve
A few former colleagues of ours at the Darwin Station co-authored a new paper that just came out, looking into the effects of having established one of the largest marine reserves of the world on the industrial tuna fishing fleet operating in nearby waters.
Typically, industrial tuna fishing interests are annoyed when governments establish "no-fishing" zones. That was the case when Ecuador created the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 1998 (which was subsequently recognized as a World Heritage site along with the Galapagos islands in 2001).
They discovered that the effects were positive on fishing productivity (e.g the amount of effort required to capture a set amount of fish) when dealing with yellow fin and skip jack tuna, but neutral for big eye tuna.
This is good news for marine conservation proponents, and for industrial tuna fishing interests. For the full article, click here.