Populations of two coral reef shark species are declining rapidly: the pattern of decline highlights both the substantial impact of poaching on closed areas and the success of strict no-entry marine protected areas in maintaining healthy shark populations.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are promoted as a tool to protect overfished stocks and increase fishery yields. Previous models suggested that adult mobility modified effects of MPAs by reducing densities of fish inside reserves, but increasing yields (i.e., increasing densities outside of MPAs). Empirical studies contradicted this prediction: as mobility increased, the relative density of fishe...

Fish living around the coral reefs in the Philippines provide livelihoods for more than a million local fishers and are an important source of protein for coastal communities. However, this rich resource is at risk from myriad threats, which consequently threaten human livelihoods, nutrition, and health. In this paper, we examine the degree to which marine protected areas (MPAs), which aim to c...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a popular conservation strategy, but their impacts on human welfare are poorly understood. To inform future research and policy decisions, we reviewed the scientific literature to assess MPA impacts on five indicators of human welfare: food security, resource rights, employment, community organization, and income. Following MPA establishment, food security gene...

Though marine protected areas (MPAs) have recently become a central element of many marine resource management plans, the potentially negative effects of MPAs for fisheries harvests remain the major impediment to their use. Understanding population responses to implementation of MPAs, and their consequences for harvests, is essential to assessing the value of MPAs as a management tool. Here I u...

The rapid increase in the science and implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world in the past 15 years is now being followed by similar increases in the science and application of marine ecosystem-based management (EBM). Despite important overlaps and some common goals, these two approaches have remained either separated in the literature and in conservation and management ...