Abstract

It has been argued that, in analogy to medical science, the first rule of fishery management is "Do no harm". That is, when treating human patients, doctors should not act to worsen the patien's condition. Application of this analogy to fisheries management suggests that management should not take actions that may result in permanent resource and economic decline. Based on this analogy, it was recently argued that the establishment of marine reserves could be deleterious if placed in "sink" areas, as opposed to "source" areas. The implication is that management must await further scientific studies. However, this argument is flawed on several accounts. First, management cannot wait indefinitely for scientific proof. Management must consider the weight of scientific opinion and be flexible in response to increasing knowledge. A more appropriate medical analogy here is "Stop the bleeding". That is, stabilize the situation. Many fishery resources are in severe decline and actions are needed in theshort termo Second, it is unlikely that scientific studies will ever be able to identify source and sink areas on the scale needed for multispecies fishery management. Third, there is now substantial empirical evidence that marine reserves create source areas by increasing spawning stock. Fourth, and perhaps most fundamental, theargument fails to understand the nature and importance of marine reserve networks. Marine reserves serve multiple management objectives in addition to enhancing spawning stock (e.g., provide control areas and buffers against management failure, maintain system integrity, diversify benefits). The principles of reserve replication and network design specifically serve to counter unknowns in siting reserves relative to source and sink areas, while further accounting for the obvious fact that species will differ in this regard. Following basic guidelines, marine reserves can be established now, for the betterment of resource managers and users.

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