Abstract
Periodically harvested closures (PHCs) are small fisheries closures with objectives such as sustaining fisheriesand conserving biodiversity and have become one of the most common forms of nearshore marine managementin the Western Pacific. Although PHCs can provide both short-termconservation and fisheries benefits, their potentialas a long-term management strategy remains unclear. Through empirical assessment of a single harvestevent in each of five PHCs, we determined whether targeted fishes that differ in their vulnerability to fishing recoveredto pre-harvest conditions (the state prior to last harvest) and demonstrated post-harvest recovery benefitsafter 1 year of re-closure. For low and moderately vulnerable species, two PHCs provided significant preharvestbenefits and one provided significant post-harvest recovery benefits, suggesting a contribution to longer-term sustainability. PHCs with a combination of high compliance and longer closing times are more likelyto provide fisheries benefits and recover from harvest events, however, no benefits were observed across anyPHCs for highly vulnerable species. We recommend PHCs have longer closure periods before being harvestedand species that are highly vulnerable to fishing (e.g. large species of; grouper,wrasse and parrotfish) are avoidedduring harvests to avoid overexploitation and increase the sustainability of small-scale fisheries.