Surveys of the subtidal reef biota of the Tinderbox Marine Nature Reserve 1992-2017

Over the 25 year period of monitoring at the Tinderbox marine reserve and nearby reference sites open to fishing, a range of significant changes have been observed, some regional and some clearly related to the influence of fishing activities and protection from these in the reserve. At the regional scale there was a marked decline in the abundance of mobile invertebrates through time, with this pattern evident across a wide range of species and mirroring a similar decline observed in related monitoring programs at a range of locations in SE Australia. This appears to be driven by climate variation over this period and is a significant cause for concern.