Linking Land and Sea Through an Ecological-Economic Model of Coral Reef Recreation

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordCoastal zones are popular recreational areas that substantially contribute to social welfare. Managers can use information about specific environmental features that people value, and how these might change under different management scenarios, to spatially target actions to areas of high current or potential value. We explored how snorkelers' experience would be affected by separate and combined land and marine management actions in West Maui, Hawaiʻi, using a Bayesian belief network (BBN) and a spatially explicit ecosystem services model. The BBN simulates the attractiveness of a site for recreation by combining snorkeler preferences for coastal features with expert opinions on ecological dynamics, snorkeler behavior, and management actions. A choice experiment with snorkelers elucidated their preferences for sites with better ecological and water-quality conditions. Linking the economic elicitation to the spatially explicit BBN to evaluate land-sea management scenarios provides specific guidance on where and how to act in West Maui to maximize ecosystem service returns. Improving coastal water quality through sediment runoff and cesspool effluent reductions (land management), and enhancing coral reef ecosystem conditions (marine management) positively affected overall snorkeling attractiveness across the study area, but with differential results at specific sites. The highest improvements were attained through joint land-sea management, driven by strong efforts to increase fish abundance and reduce sediment; however, the effects of management at individual beaches varied.Pacific Islands Climate Science Center (PICSC)US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA)National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Conservation ProgramNational Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC

Lessons learnt from experimental temporary octopus fishing closures in south-west Madagascar: benefits of concurrent closures

This paper presents evidence of the fisheries effect of experimental temporary fishing closures for Octopus in the then-emergent Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) in south-west Madagascar during 2004–2006. We present an analysis of the O. cyanea catch data for the first two years of temporary closures based on landings data collected from village-based octopus collectors. We found a significant closure effect in terms of total weight and number of octopus caught on opening days, but observed that these benefits dissipated quickly, returning to pre-closure levels within days. Mean octopus size increased by 41% on average when compared to data from selected control sites. However, extremely high levels of fishing effort on opening days meant that these biological effects did not translate into increased weight of octopus caught per successful fisher over the opening tide. Upon opening of concurrent closures during the second round of closures we found significant increases in the weight of octopus caught per successful fisher. We conclude that the pilot closures had a significant closure effect, but caution against isolated openings leading to concentrated fishing effort on opening days.Keywords: fishery management, locally managed marine area (LMMA),  Octopus cyaneaAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2014, 36(1): 31–3

Lessons learnt from experimental temporary octopus fishing closures in south-west Madagascar: benefits of concurrent closures

This paper presents evidence of the fisheries effect of experimental temporary fishing closures for Octopus in the then-emergent Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) in south-west Madagascar during 2004–2006. We present an analysis of the O. cyanea catch data for the first two years of temporary closures based on landings data collected from village-based octopus collectors. We found a significant closure effect in terms of total weight and number of octopus caught on opening days, but observed that these benefits dissipated quickly, returning to pre-closure levels within days. Mean octopus size increased by 41% on average when compared to data from selected control sites. However, extremely high levels of fishing effort on opening days meant that these biological effects did not translate into increased weight of octopus caught per successful fisher over the opening tide. Upon opening of concurrent closures during the second round of closures we found significant increases in the weight of octopus caught per successful fisher. We conclude that the pilot closures had a significant closure effect, but caution against isolated openings leading to concentrated fishing effort on opening days.Keywords: fishery management, locally managed marine area (LMMA),  Octopus cyaneaAfrican Journal of Marine Science 2014, 36(1): 31–3