Abstract

Target fishery species have been traditionally used as indicators of compliance and management success in no-take marine protected areas (MPAs). However, this approach has the limitation of ignoring the effects that no-take MPAs may have on the functional role of fishes at the community and ecosystem levels. The first objective of this study was to document spatial and temporal variation patterns in the structure of coral reef fish communities at the functional group level within the Luis Peña Channel No-Take Natural Reserve (LPCNR) in Culebra Island, Puerto Rico. The second objective was to test the efficiency of fish functional groups as indicators of management success in the LPCNR. There was a rapid recovery of fish communities three years following the designation of the LPCNR in 1999. Fish communities at a control fished reef located outside the reserve boundaries also showed a rapid recovery. However, management failures have resulted in poor compliance and in a recent increase in illegal fishing activities. This has resulted in a fish decline trend within core areas of LPCNR during the period of 2002 to 2004. Control sites showed the opposite trend. Also, fish communities at the reserve boundary site collapsed as a combined result of increased fishing pressure by fishers displacement after LPCNR designation and by chronic environmental degradation from areas outside reserves boundaries (i.e., large volumes of sediment-and nutrient-loaded runoff, raw sewage discharges). Chronic environmental degradation between 1997 and 2003 has been associated to a major phase shift in the community structure of coral reef benthic communities from coral to algal dominance within LPCNR. In spite of that, LPCNR has been a successful tool restoring overexploited fish communities in Culebra Island. This suggests that even with very limited efforts no-take MPAs can be successful in restoring severely depleted fishery resources. However, management failures within and outside LPCNR need to be addressed and eliminated in order to keep community support, and to restore trust and compliance.

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