Sharks Thrive in the Remote MPAs

In stark contrast to the rest of the world, in the remote, highly protected areas of the seven marine protected areas (MPAs) across the eastern tropical Pacific, from Mexico to Ecuador, sharks are thriving. But in protected areas closer to the coast, where more fishing occurs, there is a disturbing lack of these predators.

A study by Simon McKinley, a spatial ecologist at the Charles Darwin Foundation, published in PLOS One, shows that not all parks are created equally, even if that's what they appear to be.

MPAs are like national parks with varying rules about how much human activity is allowed. In fully protected zones, all human activity is forbidden. In some protected areas, fishing is permitted (such as Galera-San Francisco Marine Reserve in Ecuador), whereas in hard-to-reach MPAs, which ban or strictly police fishing -- the Galápagos, Malpelo, Clipperton, and Revillagigedo Islands -- the study consistently recorded large aggregations of sharks.

If we want to protect sharks, we can't allow fishing in MPAs.