Articulo
Marine reserves: the best option for our oceans?
Fecha
2003Registro en:
15010001
WOS:000221791600017
no scielo
eid=2-s2.0-84957706398
Institución
Resumen
The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.orgIdeas and epidemics have intriguing simi-larities. Some die out quickly, while otherslinger but never become prevalent. Still others withthe right combination of attributes at the right timeexperience explosive growth, with dramatic effects.The idea of protecting places in the sea is in a rapidgrowth phase. In contrast with temporary fishery clo-sures, marine protected areas (MPAs) are permanentlyprotected from at least one threat. Marine reserves areMPAs that are protected from all preventable threats.National parks on land date from 1872 (Yellow-stone), but intentional protection of places in the seais more recent. Fort Jefferson National Monument inFlorida, which contains important coral reefs, was des-ignated in 1935, yet progress was still gastropodalwhen I started working on MPAs in 1978. Also, mostMPAs were designated with little scientific basis.Pollution, especially oil pollution, was seen as thebiggest threat, probably because oil floats, therebymaking its effects more visible. Locations were chosenmainly because somebody liked them enough to workto secure nominal protection. Such MPAs couldaccomplish little beyond raising consciousness aboutwhat would soon be called biological diversity, but anoutbreak of new thinking occurred in the late 1990s.By the time of the first Symposium on MarineConservation Biology in Victoria, British Columbia, in1997, nearly all the buzz concerned marine reserves.