Coral Reefs And Fish Population Study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary

Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary1
CORAL REEFS AND FISH POPULATION STUDY IN POINT COOKE MARINE
SANCTUARY
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Coral reefs and fish population study in Point Cooke marine sanctuary 2
Introduction
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) offer area-centered management of aquatic ecosystem by
several types and scopes of protective measures. Habitats like the coral reefs are particularly
vulnerable to degradation from the climate changes. Marine ecosystems are being modified by
direct impacts of climate change such as ocean acidification, ocean warming, varying
circulation patterns, increasing sea level, rising severity of storms, and varying freshwater
influxes. As effects of climate variation strengthen, they may exacerbate impacts of present
stressors and thus, need modified or novel management techniques (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Marine lives are under threat due to an increasing pressure from coastal growth, rising rate of
large-scale natural turbulences linked with weather variation and resources exploitation
(Jenkins 2013). MPAs are hugely utilized, spatially explicit conservation techniques to avert
the above threats, improve the resilience of aquatic ecosystems to disturbances, and also to
safeguard biodiversity and improve fisheries and the incomes of those relying on the maritime
resources (Cinner et al. 2013).
Point Cooke Marine Sanctuary is situated in the northeast junction of the Port Philip Bay, few
kilometers from Melbourne. The protect safeguards 290 hectares of shoreline which makes it the
hugest park in the victoria’s scheme of aquatic sanctuaries and national parks. The park is
broadly protected from the hype of the suburbs by the coastal dunes and close wetlands of the
Point Cook Coastal Park and Cheetham wetlands (Edmunds and Flynn 2018). A link of narrow
sandy beaches, mud flats and rocky beefs, the area hosts a wide diversity of a coastal and marine
life. Therefore, the Point Cooke marine sanctuary case study offers an instance of techniques of
assessing the effects of a conservation interference that permits people to link the scale

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discrepancies between the decisions and proofs. It drive in the prospects for quasi-experimental
effects assessment into the daily execution of conservation interferences, and provides a
framework for mainstreaming effect assessment across the protection industry (Komyakova,
Munday and Jones 2013).
As several concerns to impacts assessment is not distinct to the conservation industry or aquatic
systems, unique reflections comprise: monitoring environmental results in marine surroundings;
choosing suitable and precise indicators: choice of right research designs; and regulating for
perplexing elements (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Authenticating the trends and status of several environmental aspects is challenging due to the
marine and terrestrial ecosystems heterogeneity. Great statistical and replication strength are
regularly needed to properly acquire the spatial heterogeneity of bionetworks, with long-period
sequence needed to unravel directional or cyclical variations from those modifications credited to
conservation interferences. Typically, monitoring MPA ecological effects, for instance, needs in
situ data collection under water, for example fish biomass, with implementation ranging the time
prior to and after MPA initiation and encompassing sites outsides of MPAs (Jenkins 2013). The
sustained and substantial backing needed are important for maintaining management at the
suitable spatial and temporal scales which denotes that severe effects assessment remains limited
in the maritime ecologies (Grorud-Colvert 2014).
Checking marine environmental structure may comprise data gathering on an array of indicators
from biological such as biomass and density of fish population to physical such as habitat
complexity and sedimentation. Indicators scale, selection, data gathering techniques and
analytical methods can significantly influence trends noted, causing too much differentiated

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evaluation of MPA impact. Subsequently, many routines require to be sensibly reflected when
choosing suitable indicators of MPA environmental effect, comprising sensitivity to modification
and controlling significance.
Considerable writings exist regarding plan of monitoring exertions to documents the effects of
MPAs and same strategy interventions, drawing on both the ecological and econometric concept.
Scientist and experts on both field focus on the necessity for suitable control to back causal
inference. Advances in the control identification developed by econometricians can be embraced
to supplement research designs advanced to justify temporal stochasticity in environmental
schemes (Johnson et al. 2013).
The MPA establishment is non-random, creating orderly partialities among the features of
protected and non-protected area. The distinct aspects of the above biases are dependent on the
routine of MPA creation itself, the process utilized to pinpoint MPA position and borders,
decision-making involved, objectives and governance. MPAs are regularly planned with the
focus of shielding the zones of great biodiversity.
Point Cooke marine sanctuary case study
Figure 1: Point Cooke marine sanctuary