Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council

Assessing the Role of Spatial Management Areas and Coral Reef Associated Species Diversity between Selected Sites Across the Gulf of Mexico

2021

Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council

"This study summarizes a Gulf of Mexico-wide review of existing literature, in collaboration with our federal and academic partners, to evaluate the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in the Gulf. We developed species hotspot maps of selected sites and compared them to appropriate control sites to identify locations between and among the selected sites which has the highest species density, richness, and diversity. The objective of this work is also to evaluate existing management practices and prioritize potential locations that might need additional spatial management. An extensive literature review, followed by the compilation of species occurrence information (corals, fish, and invertebrates) from existing surveys was used for this analysis. Differences between species diversity patterns at each site were compared and spatial hotspot analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing MPAs in the Gulf for protecting coral and coral reef-associated species."

Gulf of Mexico, spatial management areas, marine protected areas, species hotspots, species diversity, species richness, species density, fisheries management

NOS

OCM

FY2021 CRCP Project ID 31188; Project Title: FY17/FY18/FY19 - Fishery Management Council Coral Reef Conservation Cooperative Agreements; Principal Investigator: Liz Fairey; Grant NA17NMF4410272

NA17NMF4410272