Scientific Reports

Description

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation convened a workshop to review the available knowledge on spatial closures, including, MPAs, and to discuss their potential use in managing tuna fisheries. Scientists and other experts made a series of presentations to inform these discussions. The Workshop concluded that spatial closures alone would be an ineffective and inefficient means to manage tuna fisheries. However, if used in combination with other fishery management tools, closures can provide substantial benefits if the objectives are clearly identified, and there is a reasonable basis in support of deciding their temporal and spatial scale and for their monitoring and enforcement. In addition, participants concluded that pelagic closures may be most useful in bycatch mitigation. The Workshop concluded that adoption of MPAs should not become an excuse for not implementing other necessary/recommended management measures. Participants agreed on a series of recommendations with respect to the evaluation of closures and the importance of monitoring and enforcement in determining effectiveness.