an Eldis Resource

This paper considers the variety of threats and competition for use faced by the ocean ecosystems of the U.S. The author argues that seemingly separate threats such as pollution and fishing are linked in that both affect entire marine ecosystems. He states that fully protected marine reserves are the best known mechanism for protecting ecosystems and that evidence is building that reserves can cause ecosystem rebounds of both species and habitats, which then spill over into the local areas around the reserves.

However, there is currently little knowledge of the wider regional impacts of reserves so that although within the borders of reserves and close to their border, both marine ecosystems and dependent local communities benefit, researchers do not yet know the wider impacts for marine species and habitats. It is therefore argued that a wide and representative area comprising a greater number of local reserves, of different types and size and that these must be well monitored, enforced and research undertaken into their economic and social impacts as well as ecosystem benefits.

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