Nearly No Poaching in Channel Islands Marine Protected Areas

The first deep-dive analysis of how well the network of marine protected areas (MPAs) ringing the Channel Islands guards against poaching has delivered decisively positive results. Illegal takings within the boundaries of the MPAs, established in 2003 after a series of long and bruising negotiations between fisherman, conservationists, and scientists, are essentially zero, the study spearheaded by Oregon State University found. It also discovered much higher rates of legal fishing at unprotected sites nearby. 

Researchers estimated the population size and poaching frequency of four fish species ― blue rockfish, kelp rockfish, California sheephead, and kelp bass ― based on the numbers of larger, older fish present; fewer big fish is an indication of higher harvesting rates. They utilized data collected since 1999 by the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, or PISCO, which conducts long-term visual surveys of West Coast kelp forests.