The impact of marine protected areas on fish stock - Case study in Pulau Payar, Kedah

Malaysia has established Marine Protected Area or Marine Parks since 1984 to alleviate the problem of low fishery catches due to overfishing. Since its establishment, it is not known whether the marine parks are performing as expected, as there were lack of information available on the productivity status of fish and coral reef in the MPAs. One of the main concerns regarding MPAs are their effectiveness on preventing the ongoing loss of biodiversity. Thus, the study sought to identify the impact of MPAs in increasing the fish stock in Pulau Payar. This study also want to identify the relationship between the independent variables that impact the total fish stock. Secondary data was collected from the Fisheries Department of Kedah and Department of Marine Park Kedah. The method of analysis using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) criterion to estimate the parameters of the total fish stock in Pulau Payar. Regression results showed that variables such as number of violators getting caught, number of visitors, number of visitors doing scuba diving and government allocation had significant effect to the total fish stock. Policy implication such as implementing more education and awareness programme, enforcing Marine Park regulations, establishing monitoring and evaluation programmes were propose