Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Neubert, Michael G.

Titel

Marine reserves and optimal harvesting

Ist Teil von

• Ecology letters, 2003-09, Vol.6 (9), p.843-849

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2003

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Advocates of no‐take marine reserves emphasize their conservation benefits. Critics counter that reserves would decrease fisheries yield. Analysis of a spatially explicit harvesting model, however, shows that no‐take marine reserves are always part of an optimal harvest designed to maximize yield. The optimal harvest generates a spatial source–sink structure with source populations placed in reserves. The sizes and locations of the optimal reserves depend on a dimensionless length parameter. For small values of this parameter, the maximum yield is obtained by placing a large reserve in the centre of the habitat. For large values of this parameter, the optimal harvesting strategy is a spatial ‘chattering control’ with infinite sequences of reserves alternating with areas of intense fishing. Such a chattering strategy would be impossible to actually implement, but in these cases an approximate yet practicable policy, utilizing a small number of reserves, can be constructed.