Closing areas to fishing works well
Science commentary 4
When you measure the sizes of the fish you are catching and put them in the database, we can see if they are being caught before they have had a chance to reproduce. We saw this was happening with rel on Falalop, Ulithi in 2015 - you can see that the average size being caught was only 25 cm long, which is much smaller than a mature fish (39 cm). On Falalop, the rel was one of the first fish to increase in numbers when an area of the island was ‘closed’ for a time to fishing.
Closing parts of the reef to fishing is a good way to let fish grow and have babies.
Traditional rules say that you cannot fish in certain places or at certain times. We know from scientific studies that closing areas to fishing can work well. In western management they are called “Marine Protected Areas” or MPAs, and we see that when these closures are respected, the result can be more and bigger fish. Traditional ‘MPAs’ were sometimes closed to all fishing, sometimes open to just community fishing or special fishing, and sometimes closed for a time then reopened (rotating or seasonal). These traditional ‘MPAs’ worked well. The type or definition of a closed area can and should be determined by the communities following traditional practice.