Marine protected area performance in a game-theoretic model of the fishery 1

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are parts of the marine habitat in which fishing is controlled or prohibited entirely for all or part of the time (Bohnsack, 1990 Sumaila et al., 2000; Sumaila and Charles, 2002). The interest in MPAs as a tool for fisheries and ecosystem management has now gone past marine researchers and conservation groups to policy makers. Evidence of this is the May 2000 Executive Order issued by the President of the USA calling for “appropriate actions to enhance or expand protection of existing MPAs and establish or recommend, as appropriate, new MPAs.” ² In fact, a few countries (USA and Australia) have recently declared large MPAs.