Sascha K. Hooker and Leah R. Gerber. 2004.
BioScience 54:27-39.
Marine predators attract significant attention in ocean conservation planning and are therefore often used politically to promote reserve designation. We discuss whether their ecology and life history can help provide a rigorous ecological foundation for marine reserve design. In general, we find that reserves can benefit marine megafauna, and that megafauna can help establish target areas and boundaries for ecosystem reserves. However, the spatial nature of the interplay between potential threats and predator life histories requires careful consideration for the establishment of effective reserves. Modeling tools such as demographic sensitivity analysis will aid in establishing protection for different life-stages and distributional ranges. The need for pelagic marine reserves is becoming increasingly apparent, and it is in this venue that marine predators may be most effectively used as indicator species of underlying prey distribution and ecosystem processes.
Keywords: marine predators, conservation, marine reserves, indicator species, modeling.
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| Cover: These Commerson’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus commersonii), one of the smallest dolphin species, were photographed off the Falkland Islands. The species is hunted and used as crab bait in southern Chile, but the greatest threat to their survival is from accidental capture and drowning in gill nets. Such marine megafauna attract much attention in ocean conservation planning. In the article that begins on p. 27, Sascha K. Hooker and Leah R. Gerber discuss whether the ecology and life history of megafauna can provide a rigorous ecological foundation for marine reserve design. Photograph: Sascha K. Hooker. |