Development of tools for the practical design of marine reserves

We propose a working group to examine the general question of moving from theory to policy, specifically looking at the design of marine reserves, building on the quantitative results obtained under a previous NCEAS working group, "A Theory of Marine Reserves", by J. Lubchenco, S. Gaines and S. Palumbi. Whereas the modeling in that working group was a development of a general theory of marine reserves, the focus of the working group proposed here will be an application of that theory to specific problems. Rather than consider ideal optimal reserve configurations, we will study implementing actual marine reserves, given a specific situation and constraints (i.e., current fishing rate, current state of the ecosystem, limited area under consideration, uncertainty in larval dispersal, fisher behavior). The goal will be to develop scientifically sound design tools that can be used in ongoing and future implementation efforts for reserve systems, considering reserves designed both to improve fisheries and to conserve natural marine ecosystems. This effort can be viewed as a paradigm for the problem of translating ecological theory into practical policy applications.