Data and outputs from: Spatial assessment of recreational fishing displacement from marine protected areas

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) to achieve healthy and
resilient ecosystems is a proven conservation strategy to generate a wide
range of ecological and socio-economic benefits. However, the planning and
design of MPAs must be well thought out to avoid unintended management
consequences. Among the things that practitioners should consider is the
potential for fishing effort displaced from MPAs to exacerbate fishing
impacts outside of MPAs. Commercial fisheries are generally well studied
when analysing and predicting fishing displacement, but recreational
fisheries often receive less attention. In this study, we analyse the
spatial relationship between recreational fishing effort (estimates of
recreational fishing vessel density) and the predicted habitat suitability
of the main target fish species for recreational fishers in the Hauraki
Gulf in northern New Zealand. A spatial prioritisation software, Zonation,
was used to identify areas likely to receive fishing effort displacement
due to the establishment of 14 new MPAs that exclude all recreational
fishing and almost all commercial fishing. A ‘displaced effort index’ is
provided for each protected area, as well as for the entire area of study,
to help identify broad areas that are likely to absorb displaced
recreational fishing effort. The index can help inform effectiveness of
marine protected areas and identify areas that should be the focus of
assessments of localised depletion of fisheries resources due to displaced
effort. While the analysis described here is based in the Hauraki Gulf,
the methodology can be adapted to different areas and other fisheries.