Data and code from: Protection from fishing improves body growth of an exploited species

Hunting and fishing are often size-selective which favours slow body
growth. In addition, fast growth rate has been shown to be positively
correlated with behavioural traits that increase encounter rates and
catchability in passive fishing gears such as baited traps. This
harvest-induced selection should be effectively eliminated in no-take
marine-protected areas (MPAs) unless strong density dependence results in
reduced growth rates. We compared the body growth of European lobster
(Homarus gammarus) between three MPAs and three fished areas. After 14
years of protection from intensive, size-selective lobster fisheries, the
densities in MPAs have increased considerably, and we demonstrate that
females moult more frequently and grow more during each moult in the MPAs.
A similar, but weaker pattern was evident for males. This study suggests
that MPAs can shield a wild population from slow-growth selection, which
can explain the rapid recovery of size structure following implementation.
If slow-growth selection is a widespread phenomenon in fisheries, the
effectiveness of MPAs as a management tool can be higher than currently
anticipated.