Seasonal trawling bans can be very successful in heavily overfished areas: the "Cyprus effect"

Abstract

Seasonal trawling bans or closed seasons are among the most conventional management measures. They are more easily enforceable and, if implemented at the appropriate time of the year, usually produce good results. The purpose of ths paper is to describe a very successful experiment of this type undertaken recently in Cyprus, and the surprisingly good results draw attention to the particular usefulness of such a measure in very heavily overfished areas.