Bode, Michael, Choukroun, Severine, Emslie, Mike J., Harrison, Hugo B., Leis, Jeffrey M., Mason, Luciano B., Srinivasan, Maya, Williamson, David H., and Jones, Geoffrey P. (2025) Marine reserves contribute half of the larval supply to a coral reef fishery. Science Advances, 11 (6). eadt0216.

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Abstract

Marine reserves deliver impressive increases in the abundance and size of exploited species on protected reefs, but larval dispersal makes it difficult to estimate their wider benefits. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) contains an extensive network of marine reserves. By combining GBR-wide fish surveys, larval dispersal models, and commercial fishery catch data, we calculate the system-wide ecological and economic contributions of these reserves for coral groupers (Plectropomus spp.), the region’s most important line fishery. Despite covering only 30% of reef habitat, the GBR’s marine reserve network contains half of the species’ biomass and generates most of its reproductive output (55%), half of the system’s larval settlement (50%), and almost half of the total fishery yield (47%).

Item ID:	84702
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2375-2548
Copyright Information:	Copyright © 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Funders:	Australian Research Council (ARC)
Projects and Grants:	ARC Discovery Grant (DP190103056), ARC Future Fellowship (FT170100274)
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2025 00:09
FoR Codes:	41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410401 Conservation and biodiversity @ 100%
SEO Codes:	10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1003 Fisheries - wild caught > 100305 Wild caught fin fish (excl. tuna) @ 100%
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