History of fishing pressure on reef fishes for reef pairs used in this study.

<p>X-axis indicates reef pair. Y-axis indicates the amount of time elapsed since either onset (Line Islands) or cessation (GBR) of fishing in each of the reef pairs, in years. Negative values therefore represent the length of time that the Eastern Indo-Pacific (Line Islands) fished site has been exploited (i.e., indicated as “decline” by dashed arrow on right-hand y-axis), whereas positive values represent time since cessation of fishing at protected Central Indo-Pacific (GBR) sites (i.e., as indicated by the “recovery” side of dashed arrow). “Decline” and “recovery” refer to the presumed trajectory of reefs' exploited fish populations due to fishing pressure, not to structural changes in reefs.