Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are gaining wide support as a management and conservation mechanism. MPAs target everything from a single species to an entire ecosystem and although success in achieving desired management goals varies on a case-by-case basis, their implementation has significantly changed management paradigms for the better. In southern Chile, Puñihuil Islets contain the largest described mixed-species colonies of Spheniscus penguins. Humboldt (Spheniscus humdoldti) and Magellanic (S. magellanicus) penguins breed here sympatrically and provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand the successful resource partitioning between these closely related species. This region is also economically important for fisheries, such as Chilean abalone, mussel and corvine, as well as for ecotourism. Because bycatch in the coastal gillnet fishery has historically been described during the breeding season, we propose a framework for establishing a MPA based on the biology of the penguins. During chick rearing, foraging behavior based on 12 Humboldt and 10 Magellanic penguins tagged with GPS TD loggers indicates that the birds occupied an area at sea up to 106 km2. After molting, between April and August, it has been described that certain individuals disperse over a coastal area ranging from the breeding site 1000 km to the north and return to the colony for breeding activities. We therefore recommend a time-sensitive MPA whereby coastal gillnets are not allowed to fish in this area during this time. We further provide diverse MPA options where boundaries and sizes were created based on the utilization areas at-sea during early chick rearing.