Data and code from: Protection from fishing improves body growth of an exploited species

Hunting and fishing are often size-selective which favours slow body growth. In addition, fast growth rate has been shown to be positively correlated with behavioural traits that increase encounter rates and catchability in passive fishing gears such as baited traps. This harvest-induced selection s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sørdalen, Tonje Knutsen, Halvorsen, Kim Tallaksen, Olsen, Esben Moland
Format: Software
Language:unknown
Published: 2022
Subjects:
marine protected areas (MPAs)
Density-dependence
European lobster
Marine reserves
selective harvesting
Phenotypic rescue
Homarus gammarus
Online Access:https://zenodo.org/record/7341586
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7341586
Description
Summary:Hunting and fishing are often size-selective which favours slow body growth. In addition, fast growth rate has been shown to be positively correlated with behavioural traits that increase encounter rates and catchability in passive fishing gears such as baited traps. This harvest-induced selection should be effectively eliminated in no-take marine-protected areas (MPAs) unless strong density dependence results in reduced growth rates. We compared the body growth of European lobster (Homarus gammarus) between three MPAs and three fished areas. After 14 years of protection from intensive, size-selective lobster fisheries, the densities in MPAs have increased considerably, and we demonstrate that females moult more frequently and grow more during each moult in the MPAs. A similar, but weaker pattern was evident for males. This study suggests that MPAs can shield a wild population from slow-growth selection, which can explain the rapid recovery of size structure following implementation. If slow-growth selection is a widespread phenomenon in fisheries, the effectiveness of MPAs as a management tool can be higher than currently anticipated. Funding provided by: Universitetet i AgderCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100012704Award Number: Funding provided by: HavforskningsinstituttetCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100016931Award Number: For more info on the dataset, please contact one of the authors.

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