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Over-exploitation of fisheries is a serious and immediate global problem that current management policies struggle to solve. Scientists and managers accept that new strategies based on a long-term approach are required for future fisheries management policies. But to succeed, such strategies are likely to require more than just attempts by management to control annual levels of exploitation. Recent studies show that using MPAs (marine protected areas, marine reserves) can improve yield as well as protect stocks and sustain fishery viability. In this paper, we use a deliberately simple model, which describes an exploited fishery as a nonlinear dynamical system close to a point of bifurcation; small stochastic perturbations can therefore build up to cause fishery collapse. Extending the model shows that a MPA can buffer this stochasticity and alleviate the propensity to collapse. The model illustrates two main points: (i …