The Impacts of Marine Reserves on Limited-Entry Fisheries

We utilize a spatial bioeconomic model to investigate the impacts of creating reserves on limited-entry fisheries. We find that reserve creation can produce win-win situations where aggregate biomass and the common license (lease) price increase. These situations arise in biological systems where dispersal processes are prevalent and the fishery prior to reserve creation is operating at effort levels in a neighborhood of open-access levels. We also illustrate that using strictly biological criteria for siting reserves (e.g., setting aside the most biological productive areas) will likely induce the most vociferous objections from the fishing industry. In general, we find that the dispersal rate and the degree the patches are connected play a significant role on the net impacts on the fishing sector