Is the Cape Roux marine protected area (Saint-Raphaël, Mediterranean Sea) an efficient tool to sustain artisanal fisheries? First indications from visual censuses and trammel net sampling

Published source details Seytre C. & Francour P. (2008) Is the Cape Roux marine protected area (Saint-Raphaël, Mediterranean Sea) an efficient tool to sustain artisanal fisheries? First indications from visual censuses and trammel net sampling. Aquatic Living Resources, 21, 297-305.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Cease or prohibit all types of fishing in a marine protected area Action Link

Cease or prohibit all types of fishing in a marine protected area

A site comparison study in 2005–2007 of one coastal site in the Mediterranean Sea, France (Seytre & Francour 2008, same experimental set-up as Seytre & Francour 2009) found that prohibiting all fishing activity in a marine protected reserve increased total fish biomass, abundance and species richness compared to outside the reserve where fishing is allowed, one to four years after protection. Average total biomass, abundance, and species richness was higher at one of two sampling sites inside the reserve in 2006 and at both in 2007 (biomass, 2006: 3 kg, 2007: 6–10 kg; abundance, 2006: 6, 2007: 9–10; species richness, 2006: 3.5, 2007: 7) compared to sites outside the reserve (biomass, 2006: <1 kg, 2007: <1–2 kg; abundance, 2006: 1, 2007: 1–4; species richness, 2006: 1, 2007: 1–4). In addition, the commercial fish assemblage was different inside and outside the reserve in 2006 and 2007 but not in 2005, and no differences were found for assemblages of small-sized fish over seagrass Posidonia oceanica seabed. Fish were monitored inside and at two locations outside (adjacent areas north and south) the Cape Roux Marine Protected Area (450 ha, all fishing types prohibited since December 2003). In October 2006 and June 2007, six trammel net deployments sampled all fish at two sites inside the reserve and one in each location outside. From 2005–2007, at total of 28 commercial (sampled every season for 2.5 years) and 28 small fish species (sampled in spring for one year) were surveyed by underwater visual census six to 10 times at two sites in each location.

(Summarised by: Leo Clarke)