Long-term trends in lobster populations in a partially protected vs. no-take Marine Park Nick T. Shears a, *, Roger V. Grace b , Natalie R. Usmar a , Vince Kerr b , Russell C. Babcock a,1 a Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, P.O. Box 349, Warkworth, Auckland, New Zealand b Grace and Kerr Marine Consultants, P.O. Box 4267, Kamo, New Zealand ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 14 January 2006 Received in revised form 20 March 2006 Accepted 2 April 2006 Available online 6 June 2006 Keywords: Marine protected area Marine reserve Mimiwhangata Marine Park New Zealand Rock lobster Tawharanui Marine Park ABSTRACT Increasing the level of protection afforded to the marine environment requires assessment of the efficacy of existing marine protected areas (MPAs) in protecting exploited species. Long-term data from before and after the establishment of MPAs provide a rare but valu- able opportunity to assess these effects. In this study we present long-term data (1977– 2005) from before and after park establishment, on the abundance of spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii from fixed sites in a no-take marine park and a recreationally fished marine park, to assess the efficacy of no-take vs. partial protection. Lobster densities were comparable between both marine parks prior to park establishment, but the response of lobster popu- lations differed markedly following protection. On average, legal-sized lobster were eleven times more abundant and biomass 25 times higher in the no-take marine park following park establishment, while in the partially protected marine park there has been no signif- icant change in lobster numbers. Furthermore, no difference was found in densities of legal-sized lobster between the partially protected marine park and nearby fully-fished sites (<1 per 500 m 2 ). Long-term data from fully fished and partially protected sites suggest long-term declines in lobster populations and reflect regional patterns in catch per unit effort estimates for the fishery. The long-term patterns presented provide an unequivocal example of the recovery of lobster populations in no-take MPAs, but clearly demonstrate that allowing recreational fishing in MPAs has little benefit to populations of exploited spe- cies such as J. edwardsii. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The need for increased protection of the marine environment from fishing is globally recognized (Pauly et al., 2002) and many coastal nations are currently working towards increas- ing the proportion of area covered by marine protected areas. Marine protected areas (MPAs) include areas of full protection, such as no-take ‘‘marine reserves’’, and areas of partial pro- tection such as ‘‘marine conservation areas’’ or ‘‘marine parks’’ that allow various levels of fishing and have differing regulatory restrictions on fishing. However, ensuring that pro- tection efforts achieve optimal conservation outcomes re- quires an assessment of the efficacy of existing marine protected areas and management regimes. It has been well demonstrated that MPAs (of a number of forms) have a variety of benefits for conservation (Sobel, 1993; Allison et al., 1998), and also the potential to benefit fish- eries through the export of production via adult spillover and 0006-3207/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2006.04.001 * Corresponding author: Tel.: +64 9422 6111; fax: +64 9422 6113. E-mail addresses: nickshears@xtra.co.nz (N.T. Shears), GraceR@xtra.co.nz (R.V. Grace), n.usmar@auckland.ac.nz (N.R. Usmar), vincek@actrix.co.nz (V. Kerr), russ.babcock@csiro.au (R.C. Babcock). 1 Present address: CSIRO Marine Research, Private Bag No. 5, Wembley WA 6913, Australia. BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 132 (2006) 222 – 231 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon