Protected areas affect lobster evolution

Create a place of safety in which marine life can multiply, and the overspill into nearby unprotected areas will provide more quarry for fisherfolk than if no such zone existed. That is the theory, anyway. And practice suggests it works. However, the advantage may be more than a mere increase in numbers. A study of lobsters suggests that, for these creatures at least, marine protected areas (MPAs), as they are known formally, also reverse an evolutionary trend towards smaller individuals which fishing imposes, thus benefiting the men and women in the boats twice over.