Data from: Bottom-up effects of a no-take zone on endangered penguin demographics

Marine no-take zones can have positive impacts for target species and are
increasingly important management tools. However, whether they indirectly
benefit higher order predators remains unclear. The endangered African
penguin (Spheniscus demersus) depends on commercially exploited forage
fish. We examined how chick survival responded to an experimental 3-year
fishery closure around Robben Island, South Africa, controlling for
variation in prey biomass and fishery catches. Chick survival increased by
18% when the closure was initiated, which alone led to a predicted 27%
higher population compared with continued fishing. However, the modelled
population continued to decline, probably because of high adult mortality
linked to poor prey availability over larger spatial scales. Our results
illustrate that small no-take zones can have bottom-up benefits for highly
mobile marine predators, but are only one component of holistic,
ecosystem-based management regimes.