• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Santa Barbara Channelkeeper

Keeping Watch for Clean Water

  • About
    • Our Mission & Vision
    • Our Team
    • Our Boat
    • Our History
    • Our Impact
    • About the Santa Barbara Channel
    • About Local Watersheds
    • Strategic Framework
    • Financial Information
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Education
      • Student Art Show
    • Community Engagement
      • Cruise Ship Advocacy
      • Report Pollution
      • Volunteer
      • Water Conservation
      • Oil Spill Resource Guide
      • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Action Alerts
    • Field Work
      • Beach Water Quality
      • Stream Team
        • Water Quality Indicators
        • Stream Team Data Portal
        • Leydecker Archives
      • MPA Watch
      • Cruise Ship Monitoring
      • Ocean Acidification
    • Advocacy
      • Aquaculture Advocacy
      • Polluted Runoff
      • Agriculture
      • Oil & Gas
        • Protecting the Coast from Sable Offshore’s Pipeline Restart
        • Refugio Oil Spill
        • Oil Spill Resource Guide
        • Platform Decommissioning
        • Legacy Oil Wells
        • Offshore Fracking
      • Ventura River
      • Plastic
        • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Marine Protected Areas
        • MPA Watch
      • Water Supply
        • Desalination
        • Conservation
    • Enforcement
      • Ventura River
      • Offshore Fracking
      • Agriculture
      • Sewage
      • Ojai Quarry
      • Halaco
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • Blog
    • Newsletter Archive
    • eNews Archive
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Take Action
    • Donate
    • Events
    • Volunteer
      • Watershed Brigade
      • MPA Watch
    • Report Pollution
    • Action Alerts
    • Subscribe to eNews
    • Shop
      • Buy Channelkeeper Gear
      • Shop & Support Channelkeeper
  • Donate

BLOG

Blog Archive

Marine Protected Areas Enhance Lobster Fisheries Through Spillover Effect

by Santa Barbara Channelkeeper August 25, 2021

Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, are parks and protected areas that provide safe havens for marine wildlife to reproduce, grow, and replenish. MPAs support the long-term conservation of marine wildlife and habitats. In 2012, California completed the nation’s first statewide network of underwater parks in an effort to cultivate stronger and more resilient marine ecosystems. The Santa Barbara Channel includes a network of 19 MPAs, five along the coast and 14 surrounding the Channel Islands, which protect over 350 square miles of marine waters and habitat types, including kelp, eelgrass, and rocky reefs.

Marine Protected Areas are considered one of the best conservation tools available today, and they generally function by restricting certain forms of fishing, which can make them unappealing to many fishermen. However, many MPAs provide benefits to fishing communities. Scientists and resource management specialists around the world have long observed fishing benefits from well-designed and well-managed MPAs. This outcome was recently documented in our own backyard. 

A study conducted by UCSB professors Hunter Lenihan from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, Dan Reed from the Marine Science Institute, and other researchers determined that marine protected areas have benefitted the commercial spiny lobster fishery in our area. In fact, the researchers found that establishing marine reserves enhanced commercial catches despite reducing the overall area open to fishing or that fishermen could fish. 

The team compared lobster populations and catch records from waters off the coast of Santa Barbara and Goleta. From 2012 through 2018, divers conducted surveys of the size and abundance of lobsters at five sites. The data revealed that the number and biomass of lobsters increased in and around the marine reserves once fishing was prohibited. In one fishing zone containing two MPAs, annual lobster landings more than doubled in the six years after the MPAs were established despite a 35% reduction in fishing area. This indicates that lobsters were reproducing and growing inside the reserves and spilling out into surrounding areas.  

Researchers have therefore concluded that marine reserves increase fishery landings by allowing lobsters to grow in size and numbers within the reserves and migrate into fishable areas. 

These findings underscore the importance of Channelkeeper’s work to build stewardship in support of MPAs and educate the public about the benefits of marine reserves. Channelkeeper’s MPA Watch program works with trained volunteers to monitor human uses and activities at the MPAs at Campus Point in Goleta and Naples and Kashtayit MPAs on the Gaviota Coast. The data our volunteers collect can contribute to studies such as this one, by providing important information to help scientists understand how people are using MPAs and to determine how these uses correspond to biological changes in marine life.   

Explore the many benefits of MPAs here and sign up to be an MPA Watch volunteer! Walk designated sections of the coast and use our datasheets to record human activities that you observe. Click here to attend a virtual training and get involved.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Watershed Brigade Hosted Cleanups Inspire Awareness and Action 
  • A Victory for Our Oceans: Federal Court Rules Against Industrial Fish Farming Permits
  • Why Educating Young People About Water Quality and the Environment Is Crucial for a Bright Future 
  • Clean Water Starts with Us: How We Can Help Address Water Pollution
  • Planting the Seeds of Environmental Stewardship Through Art 

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Education
  • Marine Conservation
  • Monitoring
  • News
  • Outreach
  • Polluted Runoff
  • Press Release
  • Uncategorized
  • Ventura River

Contact Us

714 Bond Avenue
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
[email protected]
(805) 563-3377

Subscribe to eNews

© 2023 Santa Barbara Channelkeeper | Website by Mission Web Marketing
NAVIGATION
  • About
    • Our Mission & Vision
    • Our Team
    • Our Boat
    • Our History
    • Our Impact
    • About the Santa Barbara Channel
    • About Local Watersheds
    • Strategic Framework
    • Financial Information
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Our Work
    • Education
      • Student Art Show
    • Community Engagement
      • Cruise Ship Advocacy
      • Report Pollution
      • Volunteer
      • Water Conservation
      • Oil Spill Resource Guide
      • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Action Alerts
    • Field Work
      • Beach Water Quality
      • Stream Team
        • Water Quality Indicators
        • Stream Team Data Portal
        • Leydecker Archives
      • MPA Watch
      • Cruise Ship Monitoring
      • Ocean Acidification
    • Advocacy
      • Aquaculture Advocacy
      • Polluted Runoff
      • Agriculture
      • Oil & Gas
        • Protecting the Coast from Sable Offshore’s Pipeline Restart
        • Refugio Oil Spill
        • Oil Spill Resource Guide
        • Platform Decommissioning
        • Legacy Oil Wells
        • Offshore Fracking
      • Ventura River
      • Plastic
        • Film Plastic Recyling
      • Marine Protected Areas
        • MPA Watch
      • Water Supply
        • Desalination
        • Conservation
    • Enforcement
      • Ventura River
      • Offshore Fracking
      • Agriculture
      • Sewage
      • Ojai Quarry
      • Halaco
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • Blog
    • Newsletter Archive
    • eNews Archive
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video Gallery
  • Take Action
    • Donate
    • Events
    • Volunteer
      • Watershed Brigade
      • MPA Watch
    • Report Pollution
    • Action Alerts
    • Subscribe to eNews
    • Shop
      • Buy Channelkeeper Gear
      • Shop & Support Channelkeeper
  • Donate