A third issue on the creation of MPAN is the presence of strong physical connectivity that could favor connectivity between biological communities. In the case of the Southwestern GoM, there is a remarked connectivity due

to continental shelf currents (Zavala-Hidalgo et al., 2003). These currents moves northward from April to August and southward from September to PF-01367338 molecular weight March, allowing the movement of water masses across all the reefs systems of the CE. In Mexico, one of the main tools used by the federal government for the preservation of marine and coastal resources is the creation of Marine Protected Areas (Ortiz-Lozano et al., 2009a). The General Law on Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA, Spanish acronym) defines protected areas as the key instrument in the exploitation of natural resources, and assign its administration to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources through the National

Commission of Natural Protected Areas. In the RSGoM, there are at least two reef systems that are contained within a marine protected area. The first is the SALT, located in the category of Flora and Fauna Protection Area. This MPA is lacking a management program and does not have sufficient staff to perform the necessary monitoring activities in the area. In the case of PNSAV, has National Park status since 1992, but does not have a management program. Currently the National Park is subject to an intense judicial process where the citizens of the region have sued federal authorities to protect the reef system against a port expansion project. In the case of AT, there is a proposal to create Trametinib mouse a Biosphere Reserve (CONANP, 2009),

although to date no progress has been made in protecting the area. Besides these reef systems, there are some reefs that have not been considered in any protection scheme, as is the case of the submerged Blake reef (Fig. 2), which is located Isoconazole near the SALT but is not included in the protected area. Mexico lacks a legally defined scheme for managing networks of protected areas. The closest instrument to this approach is defined by LGEEPA as the National System of Protected Areas (NSPA). It is the integration of Natural Protected Areas that are considered of particular relevance to the country because of its biodiversity and its ecological characteristics (LGEEPA, 2011). Nevertheless, the NSPA does not explicitly consider the need to include environmentally related areas together, or even mention the term “ecological connectivity”. By contrast, in other countries like the U.S., there are experiences on the establishment of MPAs networks, as in the case of the State of California. After the enactment of the Marine Life Protection Act, the MPAs in the region increased from 3 to approximately 16% of the State waters. This network of marine protected areas represents most of marine habitats and is designed to be ecologically-connected (Gleason et al., 2013).