Sustainable Marine Structures

Although debates exist, marine reserves play an important role in fisheries management. Based on stable equilibrium state, theoretical frameworks of various systems suggest that fisheries management with the implementation of marine reserves has obvious advantage in achieving multiple goals such as improving the target fisheries yields as well as maintaining species persistence in comparison with strategy of traditional fishing effort control. More recently, ecologists pay attention to the transient dynamics of fisheries yields when marine reserves are established. Simulation results suggest that the relative advantages between different fisheries management strategies (the implementation of marine reserves vs. traditional fishing effort control) depend on not only life histories but also the measurement metrics of fisheries yields (measured by number vs. measured by weight). Further research on transient dynamic pattern of fisheries yields can help fishery managers adjust relevant policies at an appropriate ecological time scale to achieve both conservation and economic goals, which provide a theoretical foundation for adaptive marine reserve management.