Perceptions of small-scale fishermen on the value of marine resources and protected areas: case of Claveria,Northern Philippines

Establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) helps to restore and sustain marine and fishery resources, but in the Philippines only 20% of total MPAs are achieving their management objectives. We conducted a case study of a small MPA in Northern Philippines to understand socio-economic status and livelihoods of the fishermen stakeholders, and examine their attitudes and perceptions on marine resource values and conservation. Using an ordered probit model, we also investigated factors affecting these perceptions. We found a lower fish income ratio in higher income quartiles, a small share of local non-fishery income, and an apparent lack of other livelihood opportunities within the rural economy. The majority of fishermen had positive perceptions of the non-market value of marine resources, agreed with the need for MPAs, and perceived positive potential income benefit from MPAs. Level of education and fishing income were consistent significant positive determinants of these perceptions. Policy implications suggest: involving likely-to-be-displaced reef fishers in the crafting of management plans; conducting intensive research on appropriate and feasible livelihood options, for example, marine culture technologies; and designing explicit strategies to increase the propensity of coastal households to invest in children's education as a strategy for long-term sustainability of resource management.     

What are we protecting? Fisher behavior and the unintended consequences of spatial closures as a fishery management tool

Spatial closures like marine protected areas (MPAs) are prominent tools for ecosystem-based management in fisheries. However, the adaptive behavior of fishermen, the apex predator in the ecosystem, to MPAs may upset the balance of fishing impacts across species. While ecosystem-based management (EBM) emphasizes the protection of all species in the environment, the weakest stock often dominates management attention. We use data before and after the implementation of large spatial closures in a North Pacific trawl fishery to show how closures designed for red king crab protection spurred dramatic increases in Pacific halibut bycatch due to both direct displacement effects and indirect effects from adaptations in fishermen's targeting behavior. We identify aspects of the ecological and economic context of the fishery that contributed to these surprising behaviors, noting that many multispecies fisheries are likely to share these features. Our results highlight the need either to anticipate the behavioral adaptations of fishermen across multiple species in reserve design, a form of implementation error, or to design management systems that are robust to these adaptations. Failure to do so may yield patterns of fishing effort and mortality that undermine the broader objectives of multispecies management and potentially alter ecosystems in profound ways.     

Prioritizing forest management actions to benefit marine habitats in data-poor regions

Land-use change is considered one of the greatest human threats to marine ecosystems globally. Given limited resources for conservation, we adapted and scaled up a spatially explicit, linked land–sea decision support tool using open access global geospatial data sets and software to inform the prioritization of future forest management interventions that can have the greatest benefit on marine conservation in Vanuatu. We leveraged and compared outputs from two global marine habitat maps to prioritize land areas for forest conservation and restoration that can maximize sediment retention, water quality, and healthy coastal/marine ecosystems. By combining the outputs obtained from both marine habitat maps, we incorporated elements unique to each and provided higher confidence in our prioritization results. Regardless of marine habitat data source, prioritized areas were mostly located in watersheds on the windward side of the large high islands, exposed to higher tropical rainfall, upstream from large sections of coral reef and seagrass habitats, and thus vulnerable to human-driven land use change. Forest protection and restoration in these areas will serve to maintain clean water and healthy, productive habitats through sediment retention, supporting the wellbeing of neighboring communities. The nationwide application of this linked land–sea tool can help managers prioritize watershed-based management actions based on quantitative synergies and trade-offs across terrestrial and marine ecosystems in data-poor regions. The framework developed here will guide the implementation of ridge-to-reef management across the Pacific region and beyond.     

Striking a Balance between Biodiversity Conservation and Socioeconomic Viability in the Design of Marine Protected Areas

Abstract: The establishment of marine protected areas is often viewed as a conflict between conservation and fishing. We considered consumptive and nonconsumptive interests of multiple stakeholders (i.e., fishers, scuba divers, conservationists, managers, scientists) in the systematic design of a network of marine protected areas along California's central coast in the context of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. With advice from managers, administrators, and scientists, a representative group of stakeholders defined biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic goals that accommodated social needs and conserved marine ecosystems, consistent with legal requirements. To satisfy biodiversity goals, we targeted 11 marine habitats across 5 depth zones, areas of high species diversity, and areas containing species of special status. We minimized adverse socioeconomic impacts by minimizing negative effects on fishers. We included fine‐scale fishing data from the recreational and commercial fishing sectors across 24 fisheries. Protected areas designed with consideration of commercial and recreational fisheries reduced potential impact to the fisheries approximately 21% more than protected areas designed without consideration of fishing effort and resulted in a small increase in the total area protected (approximately 3.4%). We incorporated confidential fishing data without revealing the identity of specific fisheries or individual fishing grounds. We sited a portion of the protected areas near land parks, marine laboratories, and scientific monitoring sites to address nonconsumptive socioeconomic goals. Our results show that a stakeholder‐driven design process can use systematic conservation‐planning methods to successfully produce options for network design that satisfy multiple conservation and socioeconomic objectives. Marine protected areas that incorporate multiple stakeholder interests without compromising biodiversity conservation goals are more likely to protect marine ecosystems.     

Integrated maritime policy for the European Union — consolidating coastal and marine information to support maritime spatial planning

Launch of the Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union in 2007 served as important factor that stimulates consolidation of coastal and marine information to support policy implementation. Policy’s action plan provides approaches for maritime governance, research and planning relevant to information. In particular, roadmap for maritime spatial planning stimulates development of coastal and marine GIS. Article reviews the current general status of coastal and marine systems and puts them in the context of the policy actions. Main focus is on formation of geospatial information platform for integrated assessment and ecosystem-based management of coastal and marine areas. Recent developments in data, indicator and information systems are summarized in European perspective: better characterization of maritime space and marine ecosystems, development of GMES Marine Core service and related in situ data collection; data harmonisation, interoperability and access, promoted by Shared Environmental Information System principles.     

Marine extinctions and conservation

In contrast to the large number of terrestrial extinctions that have taken place over the past 12,000 years, there have apparently been very few marine extinctions. But these small losses should not be reason for complacency. During the past 50 years, government supported, commercial fishing has resulted in the collapse of about a thousand populations that once supplied most of the world’s seafood. For the collapsed species, now existing as small remnants of their former population sizes, the future is bleak. They suffer from loss of genetic diversity, inbreeding depression, and depensation. Because marine species were eliminated by historic climatic changes, continued global warming is likely to result in the extinction of small populations that already have a precarious existence. They may be considered evidence of an extinction debt that must be paid as the climate change becomes more severe. For some of the remnant species, extinction can be avoided if there is a rapid management conversion to the use of more marine protected areas (MPAs) and extensive ocean zoning where fishing is prohibited.     

Self-purification capacity and management of Baltic coastal ecosystems

It is expected that the Baltic region becomes a major centre of economic growth and prosperity in Europe already during this decade (Anon. 2000). Therefore, an Agenda 21 for the Baltic region (Baltic 21) was developed to ensure a sustainable development. Especially the coastal ecosystems are subject to increasing anthropogenic pressure e.g. eutrophication, traffic, harbours, tourism or offshore wind parks. Eutrophication remains the main ecological problem in the Baltic Sea and has serious negative social and economical consequences. Inner and outer coastal waters play an important role as buffers and filters for the Baltic proper. Consequently, the utilization and preservation of their self-purification capacity is of great importance. Combined results of our own coastal research and of the international workshop ‘Baltic coastal ecosystems: structure, function and coastal zone management’ (Rostock University, November 2001) are presented here. Conclusions for an improved integrated coastal zone management of Baltic coastal ecosystems will be presented.     

Nahrung aus dem Meer

Background and Scope

There is a multitude of uses in the seas worldwide: fishing, shipping, tourism, exploitation of oil and gas, sea-bed mining, waste disposal, etc. They all compete for space and resources. Each of them has its specific impact on marine ecosystems. Furthermore, they interact with each other and with the marine environment. Fisheries are the most deleterious interactions of man with marine ecosystems by withdrawing a major part of the annual production of large fish, molluscs and crustacea. Many marine habitats are destroyed by fishing, particularly by heavy bottom trawling.

Basics of Fisheries

The production of a fish stock can be increased by removing the old fish. Fishing is sustainable as long as it is restricted to the removal of the surplus production. Subventions and market forces are opposed the rational way of effort reduction aiming at the recovery of overexploited stocks. Fishing has collateral effects on target species. Heavy selective fishing of large, slow-growing predatory fish will favour small, fast-growing species of a lower level in the trophic pyramid. Fishing in marine ecosystems is a complex process in which biological and economic factors interact. At different scales of space and time they are superimposed by changes in the oceanic environment. Climatic variations and global warming of the Ocean differ in their effects from region to region, and they affect distribution, composition and fishing yield of the various exploited fish stocks. Politics has a major impact on the development of fisheries; historical examples are the collapse of the Eastern Bloc with its big distant water fishing fleets, or the introduction of the 200 nm Economic Zones, putting most fish stocks under national jurisdiction.

Discussion

Fishery science is still striving to understand the variability of year-class strength in fish stocks. In the foreground of modern research, however, are the interactions in multi-species communities in relation to changes in the abiotic and biotic environment and to different kinds of management. We have no possibility to study the complex interactions in marine fish communities by controlled experiments. The only information we have are records on landings and fishing efforts. They provide the basis for sophisticated mathematical models. Ecosystem modelling is a relatively young field in marine ecology. In Europe and North America fishery science is more than hundred years old. It is not possible, however, to apply the methods and models of, e.g., North Sea research to low latitude ecosystems and fisheries.

Conclusions

The sustainable use and protection of the marine living resources and biodiversity are global challenges. Each Large Marine Ecosystem calls for specific solutions in terms of research and management. Problems have to be tackled not only by computer models and remote sensing, but also by field research in all parts of the world. The further development of marine and fisheries research in developing countries is a matter of north-south-partnerships with high win-win spin-offs. Over the past decades some excellent groups of marine scientists from several tropical countries have been established who are very open for partnership projects in the true sense. They offer great opportunities to jointly study the richness of marine fauna, flora, and ecosystems in tropical and subtropical shelf seas and up-welling regions.     

Threats of illegal,unregulated, and unreported fishing to biodiversity and food security in the Republic of the Congo

Illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing poses a major threat to effective management of marine resources, affecting biodiversity and communities dependent on these coastal resources. Spatiotemporal patterns of industrial fisheries in developing countries are often poorly understood, and global efforts to describe spatial patterns of fishing vessel activity are currently based on automatic identification system (AIS) data. However, AIS is often not a legal requirement on fishing vessels, likely resulting in underestimates of the scale and distribution of legal and illegal fishing activity, which could have significant ramifications for targeted enforcement efforts and the management of fisheries resources. To help address this knowledge gap, we analyzed 3 years of vessel monitoring system (VMS) data in partnership with the national fisheries department in the Republic of the Congo to describe the behavior of national and distant-water industrial fleets operating in these waters. We found that the spatial footprint of the industrial fisheries fleet encompassed over one-quarter of the Exclusive Economic Zone. On average, 73% of fishing activity took place on the continental shelf (waters shallower than 200 m). Our findings highlight that VMS is not acting as a deterrent or being effectively used as a proactive management tool. As much as 33% (13% on average) of fishing effort occurred in prohibited areas set aside to protect biodiversity, including artisanal fisheries resources, and the distant-water fleet responsible for as much as 84% of this illegal activity. Given the growth in industrial and distant-water fleets across the region, as well as low levels of management and enforcement, these findings highlight that there is an urgent need for the global community to help strengthen regional and national capacity to analyze national scale data sets if efforts to combat IUU fishing are to be effective.     

Consumer Control of Salt Marshes Driven by Human Disturbance

Abstract:  Salt marsh ecosystems are widely considered to be controlled exclusively by bottom–up forces, but there is mounting evidence that human disturbances are triggering consumer control in western Atlantic salt marshes, often with catastrophic consequences. In other marine ecosystems, human disturbances routinely dampen (e.g., coral reefs, sea grass beds) and strengthen (e.g., kelps) consumer control, but current marsh theory predicts little potential interaction between humans and marsh consumers. Thus, human modification of top–down control in salt marshes was not anticipated and was even discounted in current marsh theory, despite loud warnings about the potential for cascading human impacts from work in other marine ecosystems. In spite of recent experiments that have challenged established marsh dogma and demonstrated consumer-driven die-off of salt marsh ecosystems, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations continue to manage marsh die-offs under the old theoretical framework and only consider bottom–up forces as causal agents. This intellectual dependency of many coastal ecologists and managers on system-specific theory (i.e., marsh bottom–up theory) has the potential to have grave repercussions for coastal ecosystem management and conservation in the face of increasing human threats. We stress that marine vascular plant communities (salt marshes, sea grass beds, mangroves) are likely more vulnerable to runaway grazing and consumer-driven collapse than is currently recognized by theory, particularly in low-diversity ecosystems like Atlantic salt marshes.     

Key Features and Context‐Dependence of Fishery‐Induced Trophic Cascades

Abstract: Trophic cascades triggered by fishing have profound implications for marine ecosystems and the socioeconomic systems that depend on them. With the number of reported cases quickly growing, key features and commonalities have emerged. Fishery‐induced trophic cascades often display differential response times and nonlinear trajectories among trophic levels and can be accompanied by shifts in alternative states. Furthermore, their magnitude appears to be context dependent, varying as a function of species diversity, regional oceanography, local physical disturbance, habitat complexity, and the nature of the fishery itself. To conserve and manage exploited marine ecosystems, there is a pressing need for an improved understanding of the conditions that promote or inhibit the cascading consequences of fishing. Future research should investigate how the trophic effects of fishing interact with other human disturbances, identify strongly interacting species and ecosystem features that confer resilience to exploitation, determine ranges of predator depletion that elicit trophic cascades, pinpoint antecedents that signal ecosystem state shifts, and quantify variation in trophic rates across oceanographic conditions. This information will advance predictive models designed to forecast the trophic effects of fishing and will allow managers to better anticipate and avoid fishery‐induced trophic cascades.     

Socioeconomic Thresholds That Affect Use of Customary Fisheries Management Tools

Abstract:  Customary forms of resource management, such as taboos, have received considerable attention as a potential basis for conservation initiatives in the Indo-Pacific. Yet little is known about how socioeconomic factors influence the ability of communities to use customary management practices and whether socioeconomic transformations within communities will weaken conservation initiatives with a customary foundation. We used a comparative approach to examine how socioeconomic factors may influence whether communities use customary fisheries management in Papua New Guinea. We examined levels of material wealth (modernization), dependence on marine resources, population, and distance to market in 15 coastal communities. We compared these socioeconomic conditions in 5 communities that used a customary method of closing their fishing ground with 10 communities that did not use this type of management. There were apparent threshold levels of dependence on marine resources, modernization, distance to markets (<16.5 km), and population (>600 people) beyond which communities did not use customary fisheries closures. Nevertheless, economic inequality, rather than mean modernization levels seemed to influence the use of closures. Our results suggest that customary management institutions are not resilient to factors such as population growth and economic modernization. If customary management is to be used as a basis for modern conservation initiatives, cross-scale institutional arrangements such as networks and bridging organizations may be required to help filter the impacts of socioeconomic transformations.     

Coastal lagoons: “transitional ecosystems” between transitional and coastal waters

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a well differentiated typology of water bodies on the basis of scientific and biological criteria. For coastal waters, such criteria have long been established, while for transitional waters they are still under discussion. One of the difficulties when applying the WFD to coastal lagoons is to include them in only one of these categories, and while there is no doubt about the nature of estuaries as transitional waters, there is some controversy concerning lagoons. To what extent, reference conditions may be similar for estuaries and lagoons, or whether features common to all coastal lagoons are more important for differentiating them from other water bodies than the fact that there is (or is not) any fresh water influence, is something that remains unclear and is discussed in this work. Coastal lagoons and estuaries form part of a continuum between continental and marine aquatic ecosystems. Shelter, strong boundaries or gradients with adjacent ecosystems, anomalies in salinity regarding freshwater or marine ecosystems, shallowness, etc. all contribute to the high biological productivity of estuaries and lagoons and determine common ecological guilds in the species inhabiting them. On the other hand, fresh water influence, the spatial organization of gradients and environmental variability (longitudinal one-dimensional gradients in estuaries versus complex patterns and three-dimensional heterogeneity in lagoons) constitute the main differences, since these factors affect both the species composition and the dominance of certain ecological guilds and, probably, the system’s complexity and homeostatic capability. In the context of the WFD, coastal lagoons and estuaries are closer to each other than they are to continental or marine waters, and, on the basis of the shared features, they could be intercalibrated and managed together. However, coastal lagoons cannot be considered transitional waters according to the present definition. To assume that fresh water influence is an inherent characteristic to these ecosystems could lead to important changes in the ecological organization and functioning of coastal lagoons where natural fresh water input is low or null. In our opinion, the present day definition of transitional waters should be changed substituting the criterion of fresh water influence by another based on common features, such as relative isolation and anomalies in salinity in water bodies with marine influence. Otherwise, coastal lagoons should be considered a particularly characteristic type of water mass for establishing reference conditions of ecological status.     

Integrated modelling of the ecosystem of the Niger river inland delta in Mali

The Niger River inland delta in Mali constitutes a vast 36,000 km² area of wetlands, producing numerous natural resources, exploited by fishermen, pastoralists and farmers. It is also a humid zone protected through the Ramsar convention of 1971. To promote the management of its natural resources, an integrated model has been developed in order to simulate the evolution of this ecosystem in relation to different scenarios of population increase, diminishing natural flooding (climatic droughts, construction of dams), increasing stress on land tenure and access to farming areas, technological advances, current administrative decentralisation policy. Possible applications of the model are illustrated through an analysis of the impact of the construction of dams on the traditional farming systems of the delta (fishing, rice cropping, pastoralism), and through a sensitivity analysis of an evolution in the fishing techniques on the revenues of fishermen. The validity of the results of the modelling is discussed and its use for other studies in the field of integrated natural resources management analysed.     

Viability Analysis of Reef Fish Populations Based on Limited Demographic Information

Abstract:  Marine protected areas (MPAs) that allow some degree of artisanal fishing have been proposed to control the overexploitation of marine resources while allowing extraction by local communities. Nevertheless, the management of MPAs is often impaired by the absence of data on the status of their resources. We devised a method to estimate population growth rates with the type of data that are usually available for reef fishes. We used 7 years of spatially explicit abundance data on the leopard grouper ( Mycteroperca rosacea ) in an MPA in the Gulf of California, Mexico, to construct a matrix population model that incorporated the effects of El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation on population dynamics. An environmental model that estimated different demographic estimates for El Niño and La Niña periods performed better than a single-environment model, and a single-habitat model performed better than a model that considered different depths as different habitats. Our results suggest that the population of the leopard grouper off the main island of the MPA is not viable under present conditions. Although the impact of fishing on leopard grouper populations in the MPA has not yet been established, fishing should be closed as a precautionary measure at this island if a priority of the MPA is to ensure the sustainability of its fish populations.     

Managing a protected marine area for the conservation of critically endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus Norris, 1958) in the Upper Gulf of California

We analysed fisheries trends in the northern region of the Gulf of California, within the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Gulf of California and Colorado Delta River and the Vaquita Refuge Area, and suggest measures to protect the vaquita, Phocoena sinus. We compiled and analysed catch reports of artisanal fishermen in the three fishing communities of the Upper Gulf of California (San Felipe in the State of Baja California, and Golfo de Santa Clara and Puerto Peñasco in the State of Sonora) from 1995 to 2007. This information was categorised with respect to geographic information systems, and all fishing sites within two marine protected areas in the region were identified. In addition, from a survey based on direct interviews with artisanal fishermen in each of the three ports, we identified that 23% of fishermen will continue fishing despite on-going fishing buy-out programmes in the region. We suggest several specific courses of action to decrease the fishing impact on this critically endangered cetacean. However, given the critical situation of this critically endangered species, it is very uncertain whether enforcing a no-take zone within the biosphere reserve and the Vaquita Refuge Area, or even a wider fishing moratorium, will be enough to save this endangered species from extinction.     

Comanagement Practices Enhance Fisheries in Marine Protected Areas

Abstract:  Fishing activities worldwide have dramatically affected marine fish stocks and ecosystems. Marine protected areas (MPAs) with no-take zones may enhance fisheries, but empirical evidence of this is scant. We conducted a 4-year survey of fish catches around and within an MPA that was previously fully closed to fishing and then partially reopened under regulated comanaged fishing. In collaboration with the fishers and the MPA authority, we set the fishing effort and selected the gear to limit fishing impact on key fish predators, juvenile fish stage, and benthic communities and habitats. Within an adaptive comanagement framework, fishers agreed to reduce fishing effort if symptoms of overfishing were detected. We analyzed the temporal trends of catch per unit of effort (CPUE) of the whole species assemblages and CPUE of the four most valuable and frequent species observed inside the opened buffer zone and outside the MPA investigated. After the comanaged opening, CPUE first declined and then stabilized at levels more than twice that of catches obtained outside the MPA. Our results suggest that working closely with fishers can result in greater fisheries catches. Partial protection of coastal areas together with adaptive comanagement involving fishers, scientists, and managers can effectively achieve conservation and fishery management goals and benefit fishing communities and alleviate overfishing.     

Contrasting approved uses against actual uses at La Restinga Lagoon National Park, Margarita Island, Venezuela. A GPS and GIS method to improve management plans and rangers coverage

Protected areas are the core of efforts to conserve biological diversity and zoning uses, and they are used as a tool for their management. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have been used to evaluate conflicts between approved uses and actual uses in La Restinga Lagoon National Park in Venezuela (LRLNP). The park (188.6 km²), covers various ecosystems such as coastal lagoons, marine waters and xerophytic vegetation, it is visited by up to 260,000 people visit per year. A GIS, using a base map compiled from 1:25,000 maps was developed. Natural cover was mapped from LANDSAT VII TM images, orthophotomaps and aerial photographs. Spatial use data was collected by field GPS location of any use inside the park during 2 years. Thematic vector maps for each land cover, zoning area, and observed use were created. Maps of zoning and uses were overlapped and new maps for each use-zoning crossing were created. The park contain nine different zoning areas wherein 28 different uses were identified, 18 of them were direct consumptive and non-consumptive uses, occurring on 54% of the park. Tourism transit areas were the most used zones. More than 5,000 people use the park during a high season day. Superimposition of zoning maps with actual use data produced 13 uses taking place in not allowed areas (46% of park area). Most common prohibited use was commercial net fishing, occurring in nearly 40% of the park area. Therefore, identifying human use conflicts and its geographical distribution is a key issue to improve Management Plans as well as identifying hot sites. The GPS-GIS methodology presented here allows Park Rangers to select those areas which could benefit from enhanced supervision with the limited budget available.     

Effects of Customary Marine Closures on Fish Behavior,Spear‐Fishing Success,and Underwater Visual Surveys

Abstract: Customary management systems (i.e., management systems that limit the use of marine resources), such as rotational fisheries closures, can limit harvest of resources. Nevertheless, the explicit goals of customary management are often to influence fish behavior (in particular flight distance, i.e., distance at which an organism begins to flee an approaching threat), rather than fish abundance. We explored whether the flight distance of reef fishes targeted by local artisanal fishers differed between a customary closure and fished reefs. We also examined whether flight distance of these species affected fishing success and accuracy of underwater visual census (UVC) between customary closed areas and areas open to fishing. Several species demonstrated significant differences in flight distance between areas, indicating that fishing activity may increase flight distance. These relatively long flight distances mean that in fished areas most target species may stay out of the range of spear fishers. In addition, mean flight distances for all species both inside and outside the customary‐closure area were substantially smaller than the observation distance of an observer conducting a belt‐transect UVC (mean [SE]= 8.8 m [0.48]). For targeted species that showed little ability to evade spear fishers, customary closures may be a vital management technique. Our results show that customary closures can have a substantial, positive effect on resource availability and that conventional UVC techniques may be insensitive to changes in flight behavior of fishes associated with fishing. We argue that short, periodic openings of customary closures may allow the health of the fish community to be maintained and local fishers to effectively harvest fishes.     

Tracking the response of industrial fishing fleets to large marine protected areas in the Pacific Ocean

Large marine protected areas (MPAs) of unprecedented size have recently been established across the global oceans, yet their ability to meet conservation objectives is debated. Key areas of debate include uncertainty over nations’ abilities to enforce fishing bans across vast, remote regions and the intensity of human impacts before and after MPA implementation. We used a recently developed vessel tracking data set (produced using Automatic Identification System detections) to quantify the response of industrial fishing fleets to 5 of the largest MPAs established in the Pacific Ocean since 2013. After their implementation, all 5 MPAs successfully kept industrial fishing effort exceptionally low. Detected fishing effort was already low in 4 of the 5 large MPAs prior to MPA implementation, particularly relative to nearby regions that did not receive formal protection. Our results suggest that these large MPAs may present major conservation opportunities in relatively intact ecosystems with low immediate impact to industrial fisheries, but the large MPAs we considered often did not significantly reduce fishing effort because baseline fishing was typically low. It is yet to be determined how large MPAs may shape global ocean conservation in the future if the footprint of human influence continues to expand. Continued improvement in understanding of how large MPAs interact with industrial fisheries is a crucial step toward defining their role in global ocean management.