Pictures: Best Marine Park? Booming Fish Leap and Swarm

Sea Lion Social

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

For more than a decade, scientists have been monitoring several species in the national park, which includes 30 islands and various coastal areas along the Baja Peninsula (pictured, a colony of sea lions near a Cabo Pulmo reef). (See our comprehensive guide to marine protected areas.)

The booming fish population has attracted many predators, including sharks, the study found. The biomass of top predators increased by a factor of 11—a particularly important and impressive growth, Keith Lawrence, director of the Seascapes initiative at Conservation International, said by email.

"Top predators tend to be the first species to collapse in the face of fishing pressure," said Lawrence, who wasn't involved in the new study. "Their presence is essential to keeping the overall ecosystem in a healthy balance."

(See "New Marine Conservation Area to Span Four Nations.")

Published August 15, 2011

Plenty of Fish

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

Overfishing hurts both fishers and the economy, because the practice eventually depletes the natural resource (pictured, jacks swirl in a courtship dance in Cabo Pulmo National Park). As Sala put it, "everybody withdraws, but nobody makes a deposit."

On the other hand, marine reserves are like savings accounts that accrue interest, Sala said.

For instance, such protected areas have been proven to replenish fish outside their boundaries too, so that fishers outside the reserve also benefit.

"It's a win-win—we can have our fish and eat them too," Sala said.

Published August 15, 2011

Big Fish

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

A 4-foot (1.2-meter) Gulf grouper waits for cleaner fish to rid it of dead skin and parasites near a Cabo Pulmo reef. (See pictures of marine protected areas in the United States.)

One of the reasons the fish numbers have grown is because, in a no-fishing zone, female fish grow bigger and have proportionately more offspring, according to Helen Fox, senior marine scientist for WWF.

That's also responsible for the most "striking result"—that fish communities can recover to pre-fishing numbers, according to a statement.

"The amazing thing is that [Cabo Pulmo] is what many places around the ocean looked like before chronic overfishing," added Fox, who was not involved in the study.

"We've forgotten what it looks like. This is what we could have a lot more of if we had more reserves." Just one percent of the world's oceans are protected as marine reserves.

(See "Little Fish Exploding in Number, Models Show.")

Published August 15, 2011

Turtle Caregiver

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

Mario Casto, an activist in the Cabo Pulmo community, cares for sea turtle newborns on a beach.

"The Cabo Pulmo case highlights the importance of strong enforcement of the rules inside the park—this park worked because people obeyed the rules and the local community bought into the project from its outset," Conservation International's Lawrence said.

"Cabo Pulmo is certainly no 'paper park'—it is a working, effective example of how marine parks should be set up."

Published August 15, 2011

School of Fish

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

Bigeye trevally school in Cabo Pulmo.

Marine reserves work when there's support from local people who comply with laws—with less need for expensive enforcement by the government.

For instance, WWF's Fox has worked with fishers in Indonesia who have exclusive access to harvest certain numbers of fish in marine reserves.

"Because they have better control, it's in their interest to manage it better," Fox said.

(See pictures: "20 New Sharks, Rays Discovered in Indonesia.")

Published August 15, 2011

Ray "Acrobats"

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

Mobula rays, aka devil rays, perform acrobat-like jumps in Mexico's Cabo Pulmo National Park.  (See an aerial picture of leaping devil rays off Baja California—named the best environmental photo of 2010.)

Other species spotted in the park include tiger, bull, and blacktip reef sharks; lobsters; octopuses; and a variety of large groupers.

(See pictures: "Biggest Whale Shark 'Swarm' Found.")

Published August 15, 2011

Panama Porkfish Parade

Photograph by Octavio Aburto, ILCP

Few scientists could have "dreamt of such an extraordinary recovery of marine life at Cabo Pulmo," Sala said in a statement (pictured, Panama porkfish swim by a Cabo Pulmo reef).

Yet the protection model has been known to work, he added: "We know from studies of hundreds of reserves around the world that effective protection results universally in huge increases of biomass of fish," he said.

"In this place the recovery has been exceptionally good."

Published August 15, 2011