Marine Protected Areas: Are They Effective?

A Marine Protected Area is a part of a region such as an ocean, beach, lake, or a body of water that is designated for preservation, conservation, cultural purposes, and marine resources. One of the highly focused goals of Marine Protected Areas is to conserve or increase biodiversity in these areas. Some may argue that Marine Protected Areas are important while others may think that they are useless. 

Positives of Marine Protected Areas

There are many positives that come with creating and preserving Marine Protected Areas. One of the main reasons why biodiversity declines is because of overfishing. When too many fish are caught, it can disturb food chains and end up as a domino effect. This happens because when an important species of a food web is extinct, less food can be shared around for the populations that feed on it. Then, food will end up declining and the food chain can not be as efficient which leads to less biodiversity and possibility the end of an ecosystem. Marine Protected Areas also relieve human effects and encourage habitat restoration. Humans may want to obtain resources that are found in these ecosystems but with MPAs protecting them, human effects can be much less or even prevented. This causes ecosystems in MPAs to naturally evolve as they would without non natural effects occurring that could slow down the growth of the habitat and the growth of biodiversity. 

The Great Barrier Reef is the Largest Marine Protected Area in the World. (Credit to Daniel Pelaez Duque)

Negatives of Marine Protected Areas

Many sources claim that Marine Protected Areas do not provide any purpose. Critics claim that the only problem that Marine Protected Areas are stopping is legal fishing. This can be true because no matter what an organization or a government tries to do, other important factors can cause the decline of marine ecosystems no matter if they are protected or not. These factors include global warming and general pollution. Global warming is going to occur at the current rate the world is living and nothing can not stop it right now. Sea levels are going to rise which can drastically change ecosystems. Mass pollution is also going to happen and they will also affect these ecosystems in Marine Protected Areas. Also, if whoever runs an MPA is corrupt, then there is no point in having one because with corruption, MPA's can be left unprotected which leads to human effects that could easily be prevented with correct patrol.

In the end, there is currently not enough research that shows that MPAs improve ecosystems and increases biodiversity. With main factors such as pollution being prevalent, all we can do is try our best to do things that lessen the negatives.