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Marine protected areas are increasingly being implemented to attain a variety of conservation and fisheries management objectives. Although rarely considered, protection of targeted species within these areas may also conserve behaviours (e.g. boldness) that are often the first removed by human exploitation. Here we examine fish behaviour in fished, no-take, and no-entry management zones for a highly targeted reef fish species (coral trout; Plectropomus leopardus) on coral reefs in two regions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia. Using three behavioural metrics (flight-initiation distance, pre-flight behaviour, and escape trajectories), we demonstrate how protected areas, particularly no-entry zones, can effectively conserve naive or bold behavioural traits in fish populations. Flight-initiation distance was consistently highest in fished zones, but the effects of protection afforded by no-take and no-entry zones varied by study region. Flight-initiation distance was consistently higher for fish above the minimum legal retention size limit, except in no-entry zones of the southern region. This indicates that no-entry zones may be maintaining near-natural, pre-exploitation behaviour, which could have considerable implications for the genetic and social structures of a highly valuable commercial species. Conservation and fisheries management would therefore benefit from an increased understanding of how fish behaviour can influence population structures, and how these populations may be influenced by fishing and other human interactions.

Fishing is altering aquatic ecosystems through changes in the abundance, species composition and behavior of target species. Changes in fish behavior have received relatively little attention, despite significant evidence of behavioral change driven by human impacts mediating function and processes in terrestrial ecosystems, and emerging evidence that the same is true in marine systems even within marine reserves. Here, we measured the wariness of two families of coral reef fishes in both fished areas and marine reserves embedded within a fished seascape along an exploitation gradient ranging from wilderness sites (Chagos) to heavily fished areas (the Philippines). We used linear mixed effect models to identify relationships between fish flight initiation distance (FID) and fishing pressure, fish size, habitat complexity and life-history stage. Critically, fish FID increased with fishing pressure both in fished areas and inside marine reserves. These results imply that as fishing pressure increases in adjacent areas, progressively greater fish wariness may reduce the magnitude of some ecosystem functions within small marine reserves.

No-take marine protected areas (MPAs) are an important tool for conserving marine biodiversity and managing fisheries. However, with increasing environmental change driven by local and global stressors, it is critical to understand whether MPAs can continue to provide social, economic and conservation benefits in the long-term. Here, we compare coral reef benthic and fish assemblages across 17 paired MPA-fished control sites on three heavily populated, high elevation “mainland” islands, and four lowly populated, low elevation “offshore” islands that differed in their exposure to recent typhoons. Despite lower cover of macroalgae in MPAs compared to fished areas, especially on mainland islands, there were no consistent differences in benthic assemblages or total hard coral cover between paired MPA and fished reefs. Typhoons had severe negative effects on live hard coral cover, regardless of island type or MPA protection, and typhoon impacted reefs supported different fish assemblages and lower total biomass of fish, compared to non-impacted reefs. Although fish assemblage structure and total biomass differed between mainland and offshore islands, MPAs consistently supported a higher total biomass of fish than fished areas, with the magnitude of the MPA effect lower on typhoon impacted reefs. Our findings suggest that despite inherent differences in environmental conditions between mainland and offshore island coral reefs, MPAs can provide benefits to fish biomass, even when reefs are affected by typhoons. The development of management strategies that incorporate sound coastal land-use practices, while positioning MPAs in areas less prone to typhoon impact, will provide MPAs the best chance of success if climatic extremes increase.

Marine protected area (MPA) networks designed without consideration of the interests of local communities are likely to fail. However, in many regions where conservation action is needed most urgently, socioeconomic data are not available at spatial scales relevant to conservation planning. In the Philippines, the primary stakeholders relevant to conservation efforts in coastal waters are small-scale fishers. Unlike commercial fisheries, no logbook data are kept to record fishers’ spatial effort and usage patterns. We investigated the effects of including different surrogates for small-scale fishing effort in the systematic design of an MPA network for Siquijor Province. We compared a reserve selection scenario in which socioeconomic data were not considered with four different surrogates for fishing effort and with empirical data on the spatial distribution of fishing effort collected through interviews. We assumed that minimising opportunity costs to fishers would increase the likelihood that they would support and comply with MPA implementation, resulting in more effective conservation. Surrogates modelled on the number of fishers or boats in each community consistently outperformed those based on population census data. However, none of the surrogates we tested were able to accurately predict fine-scale resource use patterns. Whilst socioeconomic surrogates may be able to assist conservation planners to identify regional-scale opportunities where conservation objectives may be met more easily, they cannot act as a shortcut for comprehensive consultation with communities, which will be required to identify actual sites for MPA implementation.