Managing the development of artificial reef systems: The need for quantitative goals

Fisheries enhancement initiatives are a potentially useful tool for managers to supplement traditional approaches. Habitat-based enhancements often deploy artificial reefs with the aim to increase the available structure to augment local production, yet current assessment approaches make it difficult to assess whether these reefs achieve pre-deployment goals. This makes it hard for managers to determine whether artificial reefs could improve their fishery outputs, potentially leading to missed opportunities and reduced production. We reviewed 270 research articles to determine whether existing monitoring studies identify whether artificial reefs meet their pre-deployment goals, thereby providing some evidence of their suitability for certain fisheries. We found only 62% of these studies clearly articulated the original goals of the reef. Goals were qualitative, and most studies were conducted over insufficient time frames to allow for ecological communities to stabilize and mature. It is therefore difficult to determine the success or failure of many artificial reefs in addressing the management issues for which they were deployed. In the light of these findings, we think the setting of explicit quantitative goals (which may be biological, social or economic), and monitoring the performance of reefs against these goals, could stimulate the broader application of artificial reefs in fisheries management strategies. Such an approach has been successfully adopted in aquaculture-based fisheries enhancement, and we explain how current evaluation methods such as harvest strategies can be easily adapted to quantitatively monitor artificial reef performance.