Rural delivery: Seafood companies must embrace marine reserves

By SARAH GIBBS

Conservation Minister Sandra Lee's recent announcement of proposed changes to the Marine Reserves Act has raised the ire of some in seafood lobby groups.

Opinions have been voiced that "locking up" areas of the marine environment in no-take reserves has no scientific backing, will jeopardise livelihoods and may even harm fish stocks.

In fact the opposite is true. Research shows that marine reserves dramatically increase the biological wealth of the sea.

A survey of 100 no-take marine reserves around the world by the National Centre for Ecological Analysis in the US showed that marine reserves increased fish stocks by an average of 91 per cent. Fish size increased by an average of 31 per cent and the number of species present in reserves increased by an average of 23 per cent.

Marine reserves have worked so well to protect biodiversity and fish stocks that internationally scientists are calling for at least 20 per cent of our seas to be protected as marine reserves.

It has been suggested that the total allowable catch system, used to manage fisheries in New Zealand, means that a network of marine reserves is unnecessary here. The evidence indicates that this is not the case.

Eighty per cent of our biodiversity is in our seas. There are hundreds of thousands of marine species, yet the quota management system covers only about 250 fish stocks. The quota system does not address the question of unintentional, and sometimes unavoidable, by-catch particularly well.

Despite rigorous monitoring and data collection, there is still not enough data on about half the 250 fish stocks managed under the quota system to know if they are being managed sustainably.

While the quota system does work well in some cases, other fish stocks have been managed to the verge of extinction under this model.

A network of marine reserves protecting a variety of marine habitats would provide an integrated, habitat-based management tool that gives a form of insurance against our lack of knowledge about marine ecosystems. It would also provide considerable business opportunities in the form of ecotourism.

There was much scepticism when the Goat Island marine reserve was proposed for Leigh, north of Auckland. Today the reserve attracts 250,000 people a year, with obvious economic spin-offs for local businesses.

The Poor Knights marine reserve has been a similar success, with a reputation as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.

With the level of dismay being expressed at the prospect of more marine reserves, you would think that fishers were about to be confined to a small area of the ocean. But if 20 per cent of our seas were designated as marine reserves by 2020, 80 per cent would still be open for commercial fishing.

A pitiful 0.1 per cent of New Zealand's territorial waters are now protected in reserves. Yet the seafood lobby opposes any significant increase in the number of marine reserves. What other industry expects to have access to such a huge ecosystem in its entirety?

There is nothing particularly radical about reserving areas - it has become standard practice worldwide as a way to protect representative ecosystems. New Zealand already has a third of its land area protected through various mechanisms.

The creation of more marine reserves is imperative for marine biodiversity and the sustainability of the fishing industry. The seafood lobby can either embrace the opportunities that reserves create, or be left behind, complaining that the world should not change.

* Sarah Gibbs has a masters degree in environmental science, has taken part in a fisheries research project in Alaska, studied fisheries management on a university scholarship in the US and is northern conservation officer for the Forest and Bird Society.