Moving targets: Marine Protected Areas and Migratory Species in a Changing World

To help protect the oceans and ensure that we can carry out activities such as fishing sustainably in the long term, countries around the world are creating marine protected area (MPA) networks that incorporate the movement of species (connectivity) in their design.

Whilst most MPAs are typically designed around species that stay in fairly small areas, my project focuses on the challenge of creating MPA networks for highly mobile species. Such species move between many different locations throughout their lives, but do not necessarily visit the same locations year in year out. Furthermore, changing conditions in the ocean related to climate change may fundamentally alter where they go. This makes drawing boundaries for MPAs difficult. I will devise MPA network design principles that can mobile species under our changing climate. This may include both static measures (continual protection of a fixed location) and dynamic protection measures (protection that may shift in space and time).

Faculty Supervisor:

Shawn Leroux

Student:

Partner:

Université de Perpignan

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program: