Marine protected areas at Higher Level: Different examples from SL: Papahānaumokuākea, the Medes Islands, Mombasa and the Great Barrier Reef. At HL, ask who makes and enforces the rules (law), who loses income and who gains (economics), and whether it is fair to close traditional fishing grounds (ethics).
Practise this as you read
- Link each benefit to the wider sea.
- Weigh benefits against limits for one named MPA.
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A safe area in the sea: A marine protected area (MPA) limits what people may do there. In a no-take zone nothing may be caught at all.
The points to remember
- MPAs are set up by law, with powers to enforce them: patrols and fines.
- Some ban all fishing (no-take zones); others allow only small-scale or traditional fishing.
- Many are zoned: a no-take core, a buffer zone and open sea around them.
- About 8% of the ocean is in MPAs, but under 3% is fully protected.
- Countries agreed in 2022 to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030.
Example (HL): Papahānaumokuākea, Hawaii. This huge protected area around the north-western Hawaiian Islands bans commercial fishing over about 1.5 million km². Its remoteness helps protect it, but patrolling an area that size is very difficult.
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Inside an MPA, fish are no longer removed, so the whole food chain can rebuild.
The points to remember
- Fish live longer and grow larger; big, old females lay far more eggs.
- Top predators (groupers, sharks) return, keeping the food chain in balance.
- Habitats such as coral, seagrass and kelp recover from trawling and anchors.
- More species survive, so biodiversity and the ecosystem's resilience rise.
- Threatened species, such as turtles and dugongs, get a sanctuary.
Example (HL): the Medes Islands, Spain. Fishing has been banned around these small islands since 1983. Large groupers and sea bream, almost gone along the rest of the coast, returned, and divers now come to see them.
An MPA does not only help the fish inside it. It also helps the wider sea, including the areas where people still fish.
The points to remember
- Spawning grounds: fish can breed there undisturbed.
- Shelter and nurseries: young fish grow up safely in its reefs, seagrass or mangroves.
- Spillover: as numbers rise, adult fish swim out across the boundary, where they can be caught.
- Larvae drift out: eggs and larvae from the big fish inside restock the fished sea around.
- So catches around the MPA can be kept at a sustainable yield.
Remember it as: Protect the nursery, fish the overflow.
Example (HL): Mombasa Marine National Park, Kenya. After fishing was banned in the park in 1991, studies found that fishers working close to its edge caught more and larger fish than those further away: spillover feeding the fishery.
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MPAs do not always work. Questions ask you to weigh their benefits against their limits.
Benefits
- Nursery and breeding grounds; stocks recover.
- Spillover raises catches outside.
- Ecotourism jobs: diving, snorkelling.
- Mangroves and seagrass store carbon.
- Healthy reefs protect coasts from storms.
- A duty to protect species for the future.
Limits
- Fishing moves to the areas around.
- Needs patrols; illegal boats still fish.
- Fishers lose income and food at first.
- Bureaucracy, many stakeholders.
- Cannot stop warming and bleaching.
- Tourists can bring pollution.
The points to remember
- An MPA works best with local support, enforcement and help for fishers to find other income.
- A 'paper park' exists by law but is not patrolled, so it protects little.
- Some stocks may be too low to recover, and global threats ignore the boundary.
Example (HL): the Great Barrier Reef, 2016. A marine heatwave bleached coral in no-take zones just as badly as on fished reefs. Protection from fishing helps a reef recover, but it cannot stop warming water.
How this comes up: Paper 1 asks to what extent MPAs would benefit marine ecosystems and people, using a resource booklet [6]. Paper 2 can ask how MPAs help fish stocks or food chains.
Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia has the most species-rich coral reefs on Earth. Its villages depend on fishing, and a network of MPAs, many run by local communities, has been set up since 2007.
To what extent do marine protected areas benefit marine ecosystems and human societies in Raja Ampat?
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