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This decade represents a critical period to profoundly rethink human–nature interactions in order to address the interwoven climate and biodiversity crises. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) demonstrate promise for increasing ecosystem resilience and reversing habitat and population declines, but outcomes vary considerably from context to context. Partially protected areas offer a compromise between ecological recovery and the social needs of local communities, but their success is contingent on an array of factors. This in-depth review summarizes 15 years of marine conservation research and impact in Lyme Bay (southwest UK), to serve as a model for the future adoption of partially protected MPAs. The findings from the UK's longest integrated socioecological monitoring MPA study are presented and supplemented by an evaluation of the whole-site management approach as a core element of Lyme Bay's achievements. The journey from research to improved monitoring and ambitious policy is illustrated within and interspersed with stories of novel discoveries, ongoing challenges, and method developments. What started as a dedicated group of community members has grown into an immense collaboration between fishers, scientists, NGOs, and regulators, and their combined efforts have sent ripple effects of positive change across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C. pagurus and H. gammarus are deemed to be declining in abundance in the Berwickshire Marine Reserve from personal communications with local inshore fishers. Fisheries data in the form of catch per unit effort (CPUE) were collected for these two commercially important decapods. Other explanatory variables from fishing activity such as the creel and bait type used, the soak time of the fishing gear, and deployment depth were recorded to provide as much detail as possible to describe the effort applied to catch these decapod species. In this study, CPUE was higher for H. gammarus and C. pagurus outside the Berwickshire Marine Reserve. General additive models (GAMs) were used to describe the effects of the explanatory variables and showed that soak time (days) and depth (m) significantly affected CPUE for C. pagurus, not H. gammarus. Sea temperature (°C) showed a negative correlation with the CPUE of both H. gammarus and C. pagurus; however, a positive correlation was found with the number of C. pagurus caught. The data collected in this study provide a foundation in understanding the current abundance of C. pagurus and H. gammarus in a voluntary marine reserve on the east coast of Scotland, which can be used to inform future changes in fisheries management in Berwickshire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Designated using a Statutory Instrument in 2008, Lyme Bay marine-protected area (MPA) is the UK's first and largest example of an ambitious, whole-site approach to management, to recover and protect reef biodiversity. The whole-site approach applies consistent management, in this case excluding bottom towed fishing, across the full 206 km² extent of the MPA, thus protecting a mosaic of reef-associated habitats from regular damage, while still allowing less destructive fishing methods, such as static gear, rod and line, and diving. 2. To assess the effectiveness of this management strategy for mobile taxa and the sustainability for those taxa that continue to be targeted, Exploited and Non-Exploited species' populations were compared inside the MPA, relative to open control sites spanning 11 of the 12 years of designation. baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) were deployed annually to assess mobile benthic and demersal fauna. 3. Overall, the number of taxa significantly increased in the MPA relative to the open controls while total abundance increased in both treatments. 4. Exploited fish showed increases in number of taxa (430%) and total abundance (370%) inside the MPA over 11 years. 5. Likewise, but to a lesser degree in the open controls, number of taxa of commercially Exploited fish increased over time, potentially showing 'spillover' effects from the MPA. 6. Non-Exploited fish did not show such changes. Regardless of constituting the majority of the fishery value, highly valuable Exploited invertebrates showed no significant changes over time. 7. Synthesis and applications. The Lyme Bay marine-protected area shows importance of protecting a whole site, comprising mosaics of different benthic habitats, through protection of sessile organisms that contribute to essential fish habitats. This Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management can benefit and maintain sustainable fisheries and species of conservation importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an insight into the spatial use and economic performance of a fishery and linked fisher wellbeing across economic, social and health domains over a 12-year timescale pre- and post-Marine Protected Area (MPA) designation. Since the MPA designation, there has been an increase in vessels using static gear inside and outside the MPA, with a significant positive trend for vessels using static gear inside the MPA. Over time, static gear landings have decreased by 110 kg per vessel per month, although there has been a significant positive trend over time in value (landings of £1,452 per vessel per month), linked to catches of high value species such as lobster, which are associated with the reef ecosystem. Fishing activity providing high volume (weight) and value landings from vessels using mobile demersal gears within the MPA ceased in July 2008. Mobile demersal gear fishing effort has since increased significantly outside the MPA. The value of mobile demersal gear landings in 2017 are comparable to fishing activity prior to the MPA designation, but has not reached the peak landings values of 2008 when the MPA was designated. Fishers predominantly using mobile demersal gear report lower subjective wellbeing and material losses. Static gear fishers report higher levels of subjective wellbeing over time compared to their mobile demersal gear counterparts. Positive subjective wellbeing is pronounced when the fishers are involved with an independent working group. Sustainability across ecological, social and economic systems requires an integrated rather than sequential approach to fisheries management and marine conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]