Are Marine Protected Areas an Effective Tool to Aid Recovery of Palinurus elephas (European Crawfish) in the North Atlantic?
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.
Related
- Terrestrial protected areas are not effective in mitigating human pressure on biodiversity
- Evaluating the efficacy of closing the current European network of marine protected areas to mobile bottom-contacting fishing gears
- Spatial identification of areas suitable for other effective area‐based conservation measures in the European Union
- GEDI spaceborne lidar for protected areas monitoring
- Genetic erosion and projected habitat loss in the protected Alpine moth Actias isabellae galliaegloria (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)
BibTeX
@article{stamp2026marine,
title = {{Are Marine Protected Areas an Effective Tool to Aid Recovery of Palinurus elephas (European Crawfish) in the North Atlantic?}},
author = {Thomas Stamp and Thomas Hooper and Peter Davies and Alice Hall and Isobel Allsop and Tim Allsop and Amy Cartwright and Sarah Clarke and Ronan Conlon and Owen Exeter and Marine Gonse and Martial Laurans and Kristian Metcalfe and Rachel Mawer and Sarah Morcom and Thomas Mullier and Lauren Parkhouse and Ricky Pender and Chesson Pender-Frazer and Jean‐luc Solandt and Colin Trundle and Mathieu Woillez and Emma Sheehan},
journal = {Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1002/aqc.70446},
url = {https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05795555v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Are Marine Protected Areas an Effective Tool to Aid Recovery of Palinurus elephas (European Crawfish) in the North Atlantic?
AU - Thomas Stamp
AU - Thomas Hooper
AU - Peter Davies
AU - Alice Hall
AU - Isobel Allsop
AU - Tim Allsop
AU - Amy Cartwright
AU - Sarah Clarke
AU - Ronan Conlon
AU - Owen Exeter
AU - Marine Gonse
AU - Martial Laurans
AU - Kristian Metcalfe
AU - Rachel Mawer
AU - Sarah Morcom
AU - Thomas Mullier
AU - Lauren Parkhouse
AU - Ricky Pender
AU - Chesson Pender-Frazer
AU - Jean‐luc Solandt
AU - Colin Trundle
AU - Mathieu Woillez
AU - Emma Sheehan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/23
JO - Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
DO - 10.1002/aqc.70446
UR - https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05795555v1
AB - 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.
SN - 1052-7613
SN - 1099-0755
ER -