Exploring Effects of MPA’s in the Gulf of Salamanca, Colombian Caribbean Sea Luis Orlando Duarte Universidad Nacional de Colombia Universidad Nacional de Colombia ECOSPACE Workshop - WorkPackage 4 CICIMAR-IPN, La Paz, BCS. Mexico March, 2007
Gulf of Salamanca Caribbean Sea
Need of management measures! Garcia et al. In press. Fisheries Research Fishery with few restrictions or controls Recent trend in reduction of catches Declining historical trend in biomasses
Fishery INPA-VECEP/UE DATA Coastal lagoon Concetrated in the eastern side (estuarine) of the GofS due to localization of landing towns and technological limitations
Objective To test the ecosystem effects of Marine Protected Areas in the GofS using spatial simulations. Estuarine sectors (eastern and western) are the objectives of the spatial management since represent nursery areas, preferred habitats of declining functional groups and fishing effort are concentrated there. Rebuilding biomasses of high trophic level groups?
Base model Input parameters were mostly obtained from local information Duarte and Garcia (2004) Ecological Modelling
Habitats Offshore Estuarine East Estuarine West Nearshore fished Nearshore less fished Rocky bottom Preferences
Scenarios MPA’s were designed with square form following the coastline in order to minimize the perimeter/area ratio and hence, minimize the dispersions and fishing effects. MPA’s were located in the estuarine sectors to protect these nursery areas. To prevent the inequity two strategies were tested: MPA’s were located in the stronger fished area to spread the effort and to create other economic uses MPA’s were located in the sector far of the fishermen communities assuming competitive behavior
Scenarios 1 MPA2 MPAs 40% 20% 0%
Preliminary results Low High Simulation: without MPA 20 years
Preliminary results Low High Simulation: 2 MPA - 40 %20 years
Preliminary results Simulation: 2 MPA - 40 % 20 years Fishing effort by fleet concentrated around MPAs
Biomass (end/start) – Cascade effect? 1 AMP 2 AMP SP Small pelagics M/C Mullets/Catfishes P/S Porgies/Spadefish C/M Croakers/Mojarras PP Pelagic predators R/S Rays/Sharks 0%MPA 20% MPA 40% MPA SPM/CP/SC/MPPR/S SPM/CP/SC/MPPR/S
1 MPA 2 MPA Catches (end/start) 0%MPA 20% MPA 40% MPA Beach seineGillnetLong lineFishing lineTotal Beach seineGillnetLong lineFishing lineTotal
Economical value (end/start) ¿Fleet operation costs?
On-going tasks To explore ECOSEED To set advection fields To include fleet operation costs (distance to the landing place) Other MPA schemes
Thank you!