Marine Reserve Design with Ocean Currents and Multiple Objectives

There is a growing tendency to consider marine reserves as a management and conservation tool. We investigate a spatial bio-economic model to determine fishery profits under conservation efforts. Rather than imposing a marine reserve on our model, we ask, “When and where should a marine reserve be implemented ?” For one-dimensional habitat, we determine conditions under which marine reserves emerge as a part of the optimal policy. Depending upon the size of the habitat, the optimal strategy is either to avoid fishing or to fish at maximum rate. The effect of ocean currents is analyzed through numerical simulations. We find that in the presence of strong currents, a marine reserve may become ineffective. If the currents are at low rate, a marine reserve could emerge as a variable management tool.