Evaluation of rockfish conservation area networks in the United States and Canada relative to the dispersal distance for black rockfish (Sebastes melanops).

ABSTRACT: Marine reserves networks are implemented as a way to mitigate the impact of fishing on marine ecosystems. Theory suggests that a reserve network will function synergistically when connected by dispersal, but the scale of dispersal is often unknown. On the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada, both countries have recently implemented a number of rockfish conservation areas (RCAs) to protect exploited rockfish species, but no study has evaluated the connectivity within networks in each country or between the two countries. We used isolation-by-distance theory to estimate the scale of dispersal from microsatellite data in the black rockfish, Sebastes melanops, and compared this estimate with the distance between RCAs that would protect this species. Within each country, we found that

SUBMITTER: Lotterhos KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3927886 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature