Marine Protected Areas should prohibit people from killing marine life and damaging their habitats.

The scientific evidence is that fully and strictly protected MPA, i.e., areas with no extraction of natural resources, show recovery of species, habitats and food webs that benefit fisheries (see Further Reading). In contrast, numerous partially protected areas do not show consistent benefits. Thus, nature conservation and fisheries management should focus on establishing fully protected areas.

We are concerned about the widening gap between MPA that aim to fully and partially protect biodiversity, and MPA that do not aim to protect biodiversity (e.g., 86% in European Union countries). We are concerned that countries may claim they have achieved the 30×30 target by false labelling and advertising areas as MPA that cannot qualify as such, hence failing to achieve long-term protection of biodiversity and benefit fisheries. At present, in Europe, only 0.03% of the ocean is fully protected.

By spending effort in partially protected areas, countries may be wasting their time and effort in establishing MPA that will not meaningfully benefit biodiversity or fisheries. In contrast, establishing fully protected areas has been repeatedly shown to benefit biodiversity, and in many cases around the world, also benefit fisheries (see Further Reading).

We call on governments to abide by the simple principle that we do not protect marine wildlife by killing it or damaging its habitat (e.g., by trawling or dredging the seabed).

Further reading

• Aminian-Biquet, J., Gorjanc, S., Sletten, J., Vincent, T., Laznya, A., Vaidianu, N., Claudet, J., Young, J. and e Horta e Costa, B., 2024. Over 80% of the European Union’s marine protected area only marginally regulates human activities. One Earth 7, 1614-1629.
• Anonymous. 2023. Sustainably financing Ireland’s Marine Protected Area network. Fair Seas, Ireland. Accessed 6th July 2024
• Ballantine, B., 2014. Fifty years on: lessons from marine reserves in New Zealand and principles for a worldwide network. Biological Conservation 176, 297-307.
• Ban, N.C., Gurney, G.G., Marshall, N.A., et al. 2019. Well-being outcomes of marine protected areas. Nature Sustainability 2(6), 524-532.
• Benedetti-Cecchi, L., Bates, A.E., Strona, G. et al. 2024. Marine protected areas promote stability of reef fish communities under climate warming. Nat Commun 15, 1822
• Britten, G.L., Duarte, C.M., Worm, B., 2021. Recovery of assessed global fish stocks remains uncertain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (31), e2108532118.
• Costello MJ. 2014. Long live Marine Reserves: A review of experiences and benefits. Biological Conservation 176, 289–296.
• Costello MJ. 2024. Evidence of economic benefits of MPA to fisheries and tourism. Scientia Marina 88 (1).
• Costello MJ. 2024. Fully-protected Marine Protected Areas do not displace fisheries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (34), e2412543121.
• Costello MJ, Salmond A, Hikuroa D, Taei S. 2016. Sustainable fisheries need reserves. Nature 540, 341.
• Costello M.J., Ballantine B. 2015. Biodiversity conservation should focus on no-take Marine Reserves. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30 (9), 507-509.
• Edgar, G.J., Ward T.J., Stuart‐Smith R.D. 2018. Rapid declines across Australian fishery stocks indicate global sustainability targets will not be achieved without an expanded network of ‘no‐fishing’ reserves. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 28(6), 1337-1350.
• Edgar, G. J., Stuart-Smith, R. D., Willis, T. J., Kininmonth, S., Baker, S. C., Banks, S., Barrett, N. S., Becerro, M. A., Bernard, A. T. F., Berkhout, J., Buxton, C. D., Campbell, S. J., Cooper, A. T., Davey, M., Edgar, S. C., Försterra, G., Galván, D. E., Irigoyen, A. J., Kushner, D. J., … Thomson, R. J. (2014). Global conservation outcomes depend on marine protected areas with five key features. Nature 506 (7487), 216–220.
• Ferreira, H.M., Magris, R.A., Floeter, S.R. and Ferreira, C.E., 2022. Drivers of ecological effectiveness of marine protected areas: A meta-analytic approach from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (Brazil). Journal of Environmental Management 301, 113889.
• Froese, R., Zeller, D., Kleisner, K., Pauly, D., 2012. What catch data can tell us about the status of global fisheries. Marine Biology 159, 1283-1292.
• Halpern, B.S., Lester, S.E. and Kellner, J.B., 2009. Spillover from marine reserves and the replenishment of fished stocks. Environmental Conservation 36 (4), 268-276.
• Letessier, T.B., Mouillot, D., Mannocci, L., et al. 2024. Divergent responses of pelagic and benthic fish body-size structure to remoteness and protection from humans. Science 383 (6686), 976-982.
• Lynham J., Costello C., Gaines S.D. et al. 2020. Impact of two of the world’s largest protected areas on longline fishery catch rates. Nature Communications 11 (1), 1-9.
• Medoff, S., Lynham, J. and Raynor, J., 2022. Spillover benefits from the world’s largest fully protected MPA. Science 378 (6617), 313-316.
• McDonald G., Bone J., Costello C. et al. 2024. Global expansion of marine protected areas and the redistribution of fishing effort. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
• Ohayon, S., Granot, I. and Belmaker, J., 2021. A meta-analysis reveals edge effects within marine protected areas. Nature Ecology & Evolution 5(9), 1301-1308.
• Turnbull, J.W., Johnston, E.L., Clark, G.F., 2021. Evaluating the social and ecological effectiveness of partially protected marine areas. Conservation Biology 35 (3), 921-932.
• Sala, E. and Giakoumi, S., 2018. No-take marine reserves are the most effective protected areas in the ocean. ICES Journal of Marine Science 75(3), 1166-1168.
• Sala, E., Lubchenco, J., Grorud-Colvert, K., et al. 2018. Assessing real progress towards effective ocean protection. Marine Policy 91, 11-13.
• Sciberras, M., Jenkins, S.R., Mant, R., Kaiser, M.J., Hawkins, S.J. and Pullin, A.S., 2015. Evaluating the relative conservation value of fully and partially protected marine areas. Fish and Fisheries 16(1), 58-77.
• Sève, C., Belharet, M., Melià, P., Di Franco, A., Calò, A. and Claudet, J., 2023. Fisheries outcomes of marine protected area networks: Levels of protection, connectivity, and time matter. Conservation Letters 16 (6), e12983.
• Sumaila, U. R., Guénette, S., Alder, J., & Chuenpagdee, R. (2000). Addressing ecosystem effects of fishing using marine protected areas. ICES Journal of marine Science, 57(3), 752-760.
• Sumaila, U. R. (2002). Marine protected area performance in a model of the fishery. Natural Resource Modeling, 15(4), 439-451.
• Sumaila, U. R., Zeller, D., Watson, R., Alder, J., & Pauly, D. (2007). Potential costs and benefits of marine reserves in the high seas. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 345, 305-310.
• Sumaila, U. R., Lam, V. W., Miller, D. D., Teh, L., Watson, R. A., Zeller, D., … & Pauly, D. (2015). Winners and losers in a world where the high seas is closed to fishing. Scientific reports, 5(1), 8481.