Research has global impact on marine management

Research has global impact on marine management

Research by Victoria University Te Rōpū Āwhina PhD graduate Sonja Miller could have an impact on the way countries design and monitor marine protected areas (MPAs).

“MPAs are widely used as tools for both conservation and fisheries management. However, in the past the assessment of the effectiveness of MPAs hasn’t been ideal, because we haven’t always had the baseline data or resources to design adequate assessments,” says Ms Miller.

Additionally, assessments of many MPAs can be confounded by differences in habitats between ‘protected’ and ‘unprotected’ sites, leading to incorrect conclusions.

Ms Miller spent a year in the Cook Islands between 2005-2006 simultaneously assessing six Ra’ui (traditional marine protected areas) in Rarotonga lagoon.

“Ra’ui were re-introduced in the late 1990s when communities in the Cooks became concerned about declining fish and invertebrate stocks. I developed a novel framework to assess their effectiveness using an index that incorporates habitat differences between ‘protected’ and ‘unprotected’ sites.”

Ms Miller’s interest in the topic was first sparked in 2001 when she volunteered with the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust cataloguing the lagoon’s invertebrate fauna.

She says her research can be used to better design programmes aimed at monitoring MPAs and facilitate improved marine protected area design, not only in the Pacific but also worldwide.

“These findings provide important information for fisheries and conservation managers, such as government agencies, traditional leaders, non-government agencies and communities. It could have wide-ranging impact on the way we support declining fish stocks globally.”

Having Māori heritage (Te Atiawa) means Ms Miller is keen to use her PhD to support indigenous marine management issues in New Zealand and the Pacific region.

ENDS