STREAM Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp 1-16. October-December 2002

CONTENTS: Hon Mun MPA Pilot Project on community-based natural resources management, by Nguyen Thi Hai Yen and Bernard Adrien. An experience with participatory research in Tam Giang Lagoon, Thua Thien-Hue, by Ton That Chat. Experiences and benefits of livelihoods analysis, by Michael Reynaldo, Orlando Arciaga, Fernando Gervacio and Catherine Demesa. Lessons learnt in implementing PRA in livelihoods analysis, by Nguyen Thi Thuy. Lessons learnt from livelihoods analysis and PRA in the Trao Reef Marine Reserve, by Nguyen Viet Vinh. Using the findings from a participatory poverty assessment in Tra Vinh Province, by Le Quang Binh.

STREAM Journal, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp 1-17. October-December 2004

CONTENTS: Pasoso project: local livelihoods and turtle conservation in a small island MPA in central Sulawesi, Indonesia, by Abigail Moore. Fisheries development in Lao PDR, by Khamphet Roger. Creating better fisher livelihoods through leasable fisheries, by Khin Maung Soe. The Jankar system for sustainable livelihoods: lessons from the EIRFP, by Binay Kumar Sahay. Alternative livelihoods for landlocked areas in BFAR Region 6, by Jacqueline T. Mamburam. Lessons learned and future replication from Trao reef locally managed marine reserve, by Than Thi Hien.

A pilot study of hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus Walbaum 1792) movement in the Conch Reef Research Only Area (northern Florida Keys)

The largely sedentary behavior of many fishes on coral reefs is well established. Information on the movement behavior of individual fish, over fine temporal and spatial scales, however, continues to be limited. It is precisely this type of information that is critical for evaluating the success of marine reserves designed for the conservation and/or management of vagile fishes. In this pilot study we surgically-tagged eight hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus Walbaum 1792) with coded-acoustic transmitters inside the Conch Reef Research Only Area (a no-take marine reserve) in the northern Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Our primary objective was to characterize the movement of L. maximus across Conch Reef in the vicinity of the reserve. All fish were captured, surgically-tagged and released in situ during a saturation mission to the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory, which is located in the center of the reserve. Movement of tagged L. maximus was recorded for up to 95 days by three acoustic receivers deployed on the seafloor. Results showed clear diel patterns in L. maximus activity and regular movement among the receivers was recorded for seven of the eight tagged fish. Fidelity of tagged fish to the area of release was high when calculated at the scale of days, while within-day fidelity was comparatively low when calculated at the scale of hours. While the number of fish departures from the array also varied, the majority of departures for seven of the eight fish did not exceed 1-hr (with the exception of one 47-day departure), suggesting that when departures occurred, the fish did not travel far. Future efforts will significantly expand the number of receivers at Conch Reef such that fish movement behavior relative to the reserve boundaries can be quantified with increased temporal and spatial resolution. (PDF contains 22 pages.)

News from Academy Bay

Proclamation of a Great Galapagos Marine Reserve. Recovery of the Marine Iguana Population After the El Niño Catastrophe. The Española Tortoises - a Very Special Case. A Botanical Workshop at the Darwin Station. The Campaign to Save the Hawaiian Petrel. Visitors to the Galapagos National Park. Re-opening of the Cristobal Bonifaz Building. Joint Operational Planning. Meeting of the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific. Galapagos Conservationists Receive WWF Award.

Effects of experimental harvest on red sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) in northern Washington

Commercial harvest of red sea urchins began in Washington state in 1971. Harvests peaked in the late 1980s and have since declined substantially in Washington and other areas of the U.S. west coast. We studied effects of experimental harvest on red sea urchins in San Juan Channel (SJC), a marine reserve in northern Washing-ton. We recorded changes in density and size distribution of sea urchin populations resulting from three levels of experimental harvest: 1) annual size-selective harvest (simulating cur-rent commercial urchin harvest regulations), 2) monthly complete (non–size selective) harvest, and 3) no harvest (control) sites. We also examined re-colonization rates of harvested sites. The red sea urchin population in SJC is composed of an accumulation of large, old individuals. Juvenile urchins represent less than 1% of the population. Lower and upper size limits for commercial harvest protect 5% and 45% of the population, respectively. Complete harvest reduced sea urchin densities by 95%. Annual size-selective harvest significantly decreased sea urchin densities by 67% in the first year and by 47% in the second year. Two years of size-selective harvest significantly altered the size distribution of urchins, decreasing the density of legal-size urchins. Recolonization of harvested sites varied seasonally and occurred primarily through immigration of adults. Selective harvest sites were recolonized to 51% and 38% of original densities, respectively, six months after the first and second annual harvests. Yields declined substantially in the second year of size-selective harvest because of the fishing down of the population and because of low recolonization rates of harvested sites. We recommend that managers consider the potential efficacy of marine harvest refuges and reevaluate the existing upper and lower size limits for commercial harvest to improve long-term management of the sea urchin fishery in Washington.

The importance of interaction strength for food web dynamics and ecosystem functioning

Global biodiversity is eroding at an alarming rate, through a combination of anthropogenic disturbance and environmental change. Ecological communities are bewildering in their complexity. Experimental ecologists strive to understand the mechanisms that drive the stability and structure of these complex communities in a bid to inform nature conservation and management. Two fields of research have had high profile success at developing theories related to these stabilising structures and testing them through controlled experimentation. Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) research has explored the likely consequences of biodiversity loss on the functioning of natural systems and the provision of important ecosystem services. Empirical tests of BEF theory often consist of simplified laboratory and field experiments, carried out on subsets of ecological communities. Such experiments often overlook key information relating to patterns of interactions, important relationships, and fundamental ecosystem properties. The study of multi-species predator-prey interactions has also contributed much to our understanding of how complex systems are structured, particularly through the importance of indirect effects and predator suppression of prey populations. A growing number of studies describe these complex interactions in detailed food webs, which encompass all the interactions in a community. This has led to recent calls for an integration of BEF research with the comprehensive study of food web properties and patterns, to help elucidate the mechanisms that allow complex communities to persist in nature. This thesis adopts such an approach, through experimentation at Lough Hyne marine reserve, in southwest Ireland. Complex communities were allowed to develop naturally in exclusion cages, with only the diversity of top trophic levels controlled. Species removals were carried out and the resulting changes to predator-prey interactions, ecosystem functioning, food web properties, and stability were studied in detail. The findings of these experiments contribute greatly to our understanding of the stability and structure of complex natural communities.

Lack of cross-scale linkages reduces robustness of community-based fisheries management.

Community-based management and the establishment of marine reserves have been advocated worldwide as means to overcome overexploitation of fisheries. Yet, researchers and managers are divided regarding the effectiveness of these measures. The "tragedy of the commons" model is often accepted as a universal paradigm, which assumes that unless managed by the State or privatized, common-pool resources are inevitably overexploited due to conflicts between the self-interest of individuals and the goals of a group as a whole. Under this paradigm, the emergence and maintenance of effective community-based efforts that include cooperative risky decisions as the establishment of marine reserves could not occur. In this paper, we question these assumptions and show that outcomes of commons dilemmas can be complex and scale-dependent. We studied the evolution and effectiveness of a community-based management effort to establish, monitor, and enforce a marine reserve network in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Our findings build on social and ecological research before (1997-2001), during (2002) and after (2003-2004) the establishment of marine reserves, which included participant observation in >100 fishing trips and meetings, interviews, as well as fishery dependent and independent monitoring. We found that locally crafted and enforced harvesting rules led to a rapid increase in resource abundance. Nevertheless, news about this increase spread quickly at a regional scale, resulting in poaching from outsiders and a subsequent rapid cascading effect on fishing resources and locally-designed rule compliance. We show that cooperation for management of common-pool fisheries, in which marine reserves form a core component of the system, can emerge, evolve rapidly, and be effective at a local scale even in recently organized fisheries. Stakeholder participation in monitoring, where there is a rapid feedback of the systems response, can play a key role in reinforcing cooperation. However, without cross-scale linkages with higher levels of governance, increase of local fishery stocks may attract outsiders who, if not restricted, will overharvest and threaten local governance. Fishers and fishing communities require incentives to maintain their management efforts. Rewarding local effective management with formal cross-scale governance recognition and support can generate these incentives.

Characterization of polymorphic microsatellites for the rough periwinkle gastropod, Littorina saxatilis (Olivi, 1792) and their cross-amplification in four congeners.

Eight new microsatellite loci were characterized for Littorina saxatilis (Olivi, 1792) and tested for their cross-hybridization in congeners. All loci were polymorphic in Irish and Celtic Sea samples, with an average number of alleles per locus of 15 (range, 6–31). Observed and expected locus heterozygosities ranged from 26 to 85% and from 53 to 92%, respectively. Three loci showed excess homozygosity and significant departures from Hardy–Weinberg expectations in one sample, possibly due to null alleles, population structuring or inbreeding. No linkage disequilibrium was detected among loci within samples. A high degree of cross-hybridization was observed in closely related congeners and most loci were polymorphic. These markers will be useful for investigating population genetic diversity and connectivity in coastal populations, especially for marine reserve design.

Foraging behaviour and habitat utilisation of Australasian gannets determined using GPS loggers

Australasian gannets (Morus serrator) breed in the cool temperate waters of south-eastern Australia and also at several localities around New Zealand, where they are a major marine predator feeding on commercially-exploited pelagic fish. This study investigated the foraging behaviour and habitat utilization of gannets at Pope’s Eye Marine Reserve during the 2005-2005 breeding period using GPS-depth-loggers. GPS data were recorded for a total of 45 foraging trips from 20 individuals. Gannets were found to forage at average maximum distances of 52.7 km (± 29.6 km) from the colony, with total foraging path lengths of 177.1 km (± 93.4 km) and foraging trip durations of 16.5 h (± 9.9 h). During foraging trips gannets spent on average 31.5% (± 11.4) of the time flying at an average flight speed of 47.3 km h-1 (± 2.9 km h-1). Gannets made an average of 39.8 (± 35.2) dives per trip and 3.8 (± 5.6) dives per daylight hour. Dives had an average depth of 3.5 m (± 1.1 m) and a mean maximum depth of 7.0 m (± 3.0 m), lasting for a mean dive duration of 5.3 sec (± 1.3 sec). Gannets foraged predominantly in shallow coastal waters and there was some evidence for foraging site fidelity. Considerable individual variation in foraging strategies was also observed. The results highlight the potential of GPS technology to reveal the fine-scale foraging behaviour of marine predators, thereby improving our understanding the interaction between marine predator populations, commercially exploited fish stocks and the marine environment.

Climate change and community response in the Borough of Queenscliffe

The Borough of Queenscliffe (BoQ) occupies a unique place among coastal Victorian locations. Situated at the tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, the Borough has approximately 3000 permanent residents, one third of who are over 60 years old. The Borough is also the smallest in Victoria, covering a total area of 13 square kilometres. BoQ is also unique because of its location. The Borough is almost totally surrounded by water and much of this is classified as maritime national park. The Swan Bay Marine Reserve is a Ramsar site and is therefore a wetland of international significance. The Borough relies heavily on tourism for its economic livelihood.

This paper begins with an overview of the BoQ in geographic, demographic and economic terms and then discusses the possible effects and impacts of climate change, as they relate to this small community. These sections are viewed from environmental, economic and social perspectives. Environmental impacts include the erosion of the coastal sand dune system and the loss of habitat for the orange-bellied parrot. Social impacts include the health effects and dangers of flooding for low-lying housing. Various indicators of community response are described, particularly the activities of the local climate change action group. Their strategy can essentially be described as a ‘push upward and downward’ approach. Innovative actions to implement this strategy are described in the paper.

Opportunistic visitors : long-term behavioural response of bull sharks to food provisioning in Fiji

Shark-based tourism that uses bait to reliably attract certain species to specific sites so that divers can view them is a growing industry globally, but remains a controversial issue. We evaluate multi-year (2004–2011) underwater visual (n = 48 individuals) and acoustic tracking data (n = 82 transmitters; array of up to 16 receivers) of bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas from a long-term shark feeding site at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve and reefs along the Beqa Channel on the southern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji. Individual C. leucas showed varying degrees of site fidelity. Determined from acoustic tagging, the majority of C. leucas had site fidelity indexes >0.5 for the marine reserve (including the feeding site) and neighbouring reefs. However, during the time of the day (09:00–12:00) when feeding takes place, sharks mainly had site fidelity indexes <0.5 for the feeding site, regardless of feeding or non-feeding days. Site fidelity indexes determined by direct diver observation of sharks at the feeding site were lower compared to such values determined by acoustic tagging. The overall pattern for C. leucas is that, if present in the area, they are attracted to the feeding site regardless of whether feeding or non-feeding days, but they remain for longer periods of time (consecutive hours) on feeding days. The overall diel patterns in movement are for C. leucas to use the area around the feeding site in the morning before spreading out over Shark Reef throughout the day and dispersing over the entire array at night. Both focal observation and acoustic monitoring show that C. leucas intermittently leave the area for a few consecutive days throughout the year, and for longer time periods (weeks to months) at the end of the calendar year before returning to the feeding site.

Building Nature’s Safety Net 2014 : A decade of protected area achievements in Australia

The single most important asset for the conservation of Australia’s unique and globally significant biodiversity is the National Reserve System, a mosaic of over 10,000 discrete protected areas on land on all tenures: government, Indigenous and private,including on-farm covenants, as well as state, territory and Commonwealth marine parks and reserves.THE NATIONAL RESERVE SYSTEMIn this report, we cover major National Reserve System initiatives that have occurred in the period 2002 to the present and highlight issues affecting progress toward agreed national objectives. We define a minimum standard for the National Reserve System to comprehensively, adequately and representatively protect Australia’s ecosystem and species diversity on sea and land. Using government protected area, species and other relevant spatial data, we quantify gaps: those areas needing to move from the current National Reserve System to one which meets this standard. We also provide new estimates of financial investments in protected areas and of the benefits that protected areas secure for society. Protected areas primarily serve to secure Australia’s native plants and animals against extinction, and to promote their recovery.BENEFITSProtected areas also secure ecosystem services that provide economic benefits forhuman communities including water, soil and beneficial species conservation, climatemoderation, social, cultural and health benefits. On land, we estimate these benefitsare worth over $38 billion a year, by applying data collated by the Ecosystem ServicesPartnership. A much larger figure is estimated to have been secured by marineprotected areas in the form of moderation of climate and impact of extreme eventsby reef and mangrove ecosystems. While these estimates have not been verified bystudies specific to Australia, they are indicative of a very large economic contributionof protected areas. Visitors to national parks and nature reserves spend over $23.6 billion a year in Australia, generating tax revenue for state and territory governments of $2.36 billion a year. All these economic benefits taken together greatly exceed the aggregate annual protected area expansion and management spending by all Australian governments, estimated to be ~$1.28 billion a year. It is clear that Australian society is benefiting far greater than its governments’ investment into strategic growth and maintenance of the National Reserve System.Government investment and policy settings play a leading role in strategic growth of the National Reserve System in Australia, and provide a critical stimulus fornon-government investment. Unprecedented expansion of the National Reserve System followed an historic boost in Australian Government funding under Caring for Our Country 2008–2013. This expansion was highly economical for the Australian Government, costing an average of only $44.40 per hectare to buy and protect land forever. State governments have contributed about six times this amount toward the expansion of the National Reserve System, after including in-perpetuity protected area management costs. The growth of Indigenous Protected Areas by the Australian Government has cost ~$26 per hectare on average, including management costs capitalised in-perpetuity, while also delivering Indigenous social and economic outcomes. The aggregate annual investment by all Australian governments has been ~$72.6 million per year on protected area growth and ~$1.21 billion per year on recurrent management costs. For the first time in almost two decades, however, the Australian Government’s National Reserve System Program, comprising a specialist administrative unit and funding allocation, was terminated in late 2012. This program was fundamental in driving significant strategic growth in Australia’s protected area estate. It is highly unlikely that Australia can achieve its long-standing commitments to an ecologically representative National Reserve System, and prevent major biodiversity loss, without this dedicated funding pool. The Australian Government has budgeted ~$400 million per year over the next five years (2013-2018) under the National Landcare and related programs. This funding program should give high priority to delivery of national protected area commitments by providing a distinct National Reserve System funding allocation. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Australia has committed to bringing at least 17 percent of terrestrial and at least 10 per cent of marine areas into ecologically representative, well-connected systems of protected areas by 2020 (Aichi Target 11).BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATIONAustralia also has an agreed intergovernmental Strategy for developing a comprehensive, adequate and representative National Reserve System on land andsea that, if implemented, would deliver on this CBD target. Due to dramatic recent growth, the National Reserve System covers 16.5 per cent of Australia’s land area, with highly protected areas, such as national parks, covering 8.3 per cent. The marine National Reserve System extends over one-third of Australian waters with highly protected areas such as marine national parks, no-take or green zones covering 13.5 per cent. Growth has been uneven however, and the National Reserve System is still far from meeting Aichi Target 11, which requires that it also be ecologically representative and well-connected. On land, 1,655 of 5,815 ecosystems and habitats for 138 of 1,613 threatened species remain unprotected. Nonetheless, 436 terrestrial ecosystems and 176 threatened terrestrial species attained minimum standards of protection due to growth of the National Reserve System on land between 2002 and 2012. The gap for ecosystem protection on land – the area needed to bring all ecosystems to the minimum standard of protection – closed by a very substantial 20 million hectares (from 77 down to 57 million hectares) between 2002 and 2012, not including threatened species protection gaps. Threatened species attaining a minimum standard for habitat protection increased from 27 per cent to 38 per cent over the decade 2002–2012. A low proportion of critically endangered species meeting the standard (29 per cent) and the high proportion with no protection at all (20 per cent) are cause for concern, but one which should be relatively easy to amend, as the distributions of these species tend to be small and localised. Protected area connectivity has increased modestly for terrestrial protected areas in terms of the median distance between neighbouring protected areas, but this progress has been undermined by increasing land use intensity in landscapes between protected areas.A comprehensive, adequate and representative marine reserve system, which meetsa standard of 15 per cent of each of 2,420 marine ecosystems and 30 per cent of thehabitats of each of 177 marine species of national environmental significance, wouldrequire expansion of marine national parks, no-take or green zones up to nearly 30per cent of state and Australian waters, not substantially different in overall extentfrom that of the current marine reserve system, but different in configuration.Protection of climate change refugia, connectivity and special places for biodiversityis still low and requires high priority attention. FINANCING TO FILL GAPS AND MEET COMMITMENTSIf the ‘comprehensiveness’ and ‘representativeness’ targets in the agreed terrestrial National Reserve System Strategy were met by 2020, Australia would be likely to have met the ‘ecologically representative’ requirement of Aichi Target 11. This would requireexpanding the terrestrial reserve system by at least 25 million hectares. Considering that the terrestrial ecosystem protection gap has closed by 20 million hectares over the past decade, this required expansion would be feasible with a major boost in investment and focus on long-standing priorities. A realistic mix of purchases, Indigenous Protected Areas and private land covenants would require an Australian Government National Reserve System investment of ~$170 million per year over the five years to 2020, representing ~42 per cent of the $400 million per year which the Australian Government has budgeted for landcare and conservation over the next five years. State, territory and local governments, private and Indigenous partners wouldlikewise need to boost financial commitments to both expand and maintain newprotected areas to meet the agreed National Reserve System strategic objectives.The total cost of Australia achieving a comprehensive, adequate and representativemarine reserve system that would satisfy Aichi Target 11 is an estimated $247 million.

Problemática ambiental en la isla de La Graciosa: ¿Hay déficit de arena actual en sistemas playa-duna?

[ES] La isla La Graciosa está situada al noroeste de Lanzarote y tiene una extensión de 27,05 km2. Se trata de un área que presenta un alto valor ecológico pues está protegida a través de diferentes figuras tales como: Parque Natural y Reserva Marina del Archipiélago Chinijo, Reserva de la Biosfera de Lanzarote, Zona de Especial Protección de aves (ZEPA) y Zona de Especial Conservación (ZEC), entre otras. En la isla hay varios sistemas playa-duna tanto en la mitad nororiental de la isla (Las Conchas, Lambra y El Jablillo) como en su parte meridional (Barranco de Los Conejos, Las Caletas, El Salado y Francesa). Algunas de las playas muestran evidencias de un déficit sedimentario pues tienen una reducida o nula entrada de sedimentos arenosos al sistema y/o muestran procesos erosivos que hacen aparecer el substrato rocoso. Además, se observa en el interior de la isla la estabilización de los mantos eólicos por la vegetación. Estos ambientes eólicos costeros son esenciales, tanto para la preservación de los ecosistemas protegidos, como para la actividad turística insular. En este contexto se están desarrollando investigaciones multidisciplinares para elaborar un diagnóstico científico de esta problemática ambiental, determinando si las causas de este déficit sedimentario son naturales o antrópicas, y proponer soluciones al respecto.

Cryptic invertebrates on subtidal rocky reefs vary with microhabitat structure and protection from fishing

The deployment of flat concrete blocks on subtidal rocky reefs can replicate natural reef microhabitats and provides a means for standardized sampling of cryptic invertebrates. The shape of the cavity beneath the block is related to reef topography and may influence the invertebrate community by affecting the amount of space for cryptic fauna to colonise and influencing the effectiveness of their predator-defence mechanisms. To determine the effect of sub-block reef structure and different levels of external predators on cryptic molluscs and echinoderms, I deployed concrete blocks at locations inside and outside the Maria Island marine reserve in eastern Tasmania, Australia. Relationships between sub-block reef structure and the cryptic invertebrate assemblage were evident between locations, whereas only a small but significant proportion of variation of assemblages between blocks within location was explained by reef surface area. No clear association with external predation pressure was evident in multivariate analyses of variation in assemblage structure. Juvenile abalone Haliotis rubra were not influenced by micro-habitat structure but were significantly less abundant at protected locations, the only species to exhibit such a response. This result follows a decline of emergent adult abalone in the marine reserve and raises the possibility of recruitment failure of abalone at some fully protected locations in the longer term.

Assessing the effectiveness of a long-standing rocky intertidal protected area and its contribution to the regional conservation of species, habitats and assemblages

1. The acceptance of reserves as a useful management strategy relies on evidence of their effectiveness in preserving stocks of harvested species and conserving biodiversity. A history of ad hoc decisions in terrestrial and marine protected area planning has meant that many of these areas are contributing inefficiently to conservation goals. The conservation value of existing protected areas should be assessed when planning the placement of additional areas in a reserve network. 2. This study tested (1) the effectiveness of protection for intertidal molluscs of a marine reserve (Bouddi Marine Extension, NSW, Australia) established in 1971, and (2) the contribution of the protected area to the conservation of regional species, assemblages, and habitats. 3. The shell length and population density of one harvested (Cellana tramoserica), and three non-harvested species (Bembicium nanum, Morula marginalba, Nerita atramentosa) of intertidal molluscs were examined in the protected area and two reference locations over two seasons. 4. The heavily collected limpet C. tramoserica was significantly larger in the protected area and was the only species to exhibit a significant difference. No species significantly differed in population density between the protected area and reference locations. 5. Temporally replicated surveys of macro-molluscs at 21 locations over 75km of coastline identified that the existing protected area included 50% of species, two of five assemblage types and 19 of 20 intertidal rocky shore habitats surveyed in the study region. Reservation of a further three rocky reefs would protect a large proportion of species (71%), a representative of each assemblage and all habitat types. 6. Despite originally being selected in the absence of information on regional biodiversity, the protected area is today an effective starting point for expansion to a regional network of intertidal protected areas.