Sustainability and economic consequences of creating marine protected areas in multispecies multiactivity context

The present study deals with harvesting of prey species in the presence of predator in a multispecies marine fishery. The total habitat is divided into two patches: one is reserve area where fishing is completely banned and other zone is called fishing area where only prey is exploited. We assume that the prey fish possesses heterogeneous intrinsic growth rate with uniform carrying capacity where as predator has constant intrinsic growth rate with prey dependent carrying capacity. The analytical conditions are derived to prevent the species extinction for larger employed effort in single (only prey) species fishery. Optimal equilibrium premium are presented for both monospecies and multispecies fishery for all degree of protection. Increasing standing stock (ISS) and protected standing stock (PSS) are measured in the presence of prey–predator interaction.

► Impacts of marine reserves have been investigated in multispecies fishery. ► Prey species possesses heterogeneous intrinsic growth rate and is harvested. ► Creation of reserve prevents species extinction under exploitation. ► Protection reduces the economic rent from fishery.