Case study: Cape Rodney-Okakari Point (Goat Island) Marine Reserve
Around the world, marine reserves are important in achieving marine conservation goals. They do so by minimising or preventing human disturbance to allow habitat conservation, restoration and maintenance of marine communities and the recovery of some species.
Monitoring of marine reserves in New Zealand provides useful insights into the effectiveness of legal protection and the resulting biological changes that have occurred in our waters. It has also helped understand how species formerly targeted by commercial and recreational fishing respond to legal protection.
In 1978, much of the sea floor in the Goat Island Marine Reserve between 5 and 9 metres in depth was rock-flat barrens dominated by sea urchins. Between 1978 and 2000, these barrens changed to habitats dominated by kelp forest or shallow, mixed seaweeds. It is thought that these habitat changes were due to the increase in lobster and snapper in the marine reserve. Lobster and snapper fed on the sea urchins, causing a decrease in sea urchin densities, allowing seaweed regeneration and other habitat restoration over time.
Snapper are now significantly more abundant in the Goat Island reserve, with adult snapper estimated to be 30 times more abundant inside the reserve than outside. Snapper are also considerably larger, with the average length of snapper inside the reserve being over 10 cm greater than snapper outside the reserve. Lobsters within the marine reserve have also increased, with lobster estimated to be 15 times more abundant in the reserve than in neighbouring areas. Similar results were found in several marine reserves around New Zealand.
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Last updated: December 2008
