1 INTRODUCTION Marine protected areas (MPAs) can restore depleted fisheries and degraded habitats (Blampied et al., 2022; Fraschetti et al., 2013; Guidetti & Sala, 2007; Stevens et al., 2014), and are a key management tool to conserve marine biodiversity and other marine resources (Duarte et al., 2020; O'Leary et al., 2016).