Are Marine Protected Areas an Effective Tool to Aid Recovery of Palinurus elephas (European Crawfish) in the North Atlantic?
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT Crawfish ( Palinurus elephas ) were once common across rocky reefs in the North‐East Atlantic, but during the 1980s widespread extirpation reduced the species to a few isolated populations in remote areas. Since 2010, the species has begun to recover and is now recolonizing much of its former range. Owing to its high commercial value, fisheries landings have increased 50% per year since 2019 leading to concerns of overexploitation. In the UK a key management measure is the designation of marine conservation zones (MCZs)—a spatial management tool through which regional fisheries authorities can impose fisheries prohibitions to protect populations. We combined data from multiple sources, including commercial catch recording and various tracking studies (mark recapture and acoustic telemetry) to conduct an integrated analysis of spatial ecology, assessing the efficacy of MCZs and provide broad‐scale baseline data for further studies on population status. We found sex dependent movement characteristics with higher mobility of males during reproductive seasons. Ultimately, however, most individuals occupied small territories (~4 km 2 ), with maximum dispersal distances ranging between 94 m and 4.6 km (1.6 ± 1.1 km—mean ± SD). A notable exception was observed in two subadults, which dispersed 164 and 165 km, suggestive that some individuals exhibit nomadic behaviour. While MCZs have strong potential to safeguard localized populations, they are not a complete solution. In particular, the species' reproductive strategy includes a long planktonic larval phase (~12 months), resulting in highly variable recruitment events that a static network of protected areas cannot reliably protect. Consequently, long‐term population persistence will also depend on broad‐scale monitoring of population processes and commercial fisheries effort.
DOI: 10.1002/aqc.70446
Authors: Thomas Stamp, Thomas Hooper, Peter Davies, Alice E. Hall, Isobel Allsop, Tim Allsop, Amy Y. Cartwright, Sarah Clarke, Ronan Conlon, Owen M. Exeter, Marine Gonse, Martial Laurans, Kristian Metcalfe, Rachel Mawer, Sarah Morcom, Thomas Mullier, Lauren Parkhouse, Ricky Pender, Chesson Pender‐Frazer, Jean‐Luc Solandt, Colin Trundle, Mathieu Woillez, Emma V. Sheehan
Institutions: University of Plymouth, University of Exeter, Laboratoire Informatique, Image et Interaction (L3i), La Rochelle Université, Ifremer, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, L'Institut Agro, Dynamique et durabilité des écosystèmes : de la source à l'océan, University of Khorfakkan
Language: English
Subfield: Aquatic Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,730
OpenAlex ID: W7204059777