Environment rehabilitation through the protection and/or restoration of marine areas was considered a more applicable action for marine invasive species of low dispersion capacity with localized populations. Yet, even for this group of species, other management actions were<br>given a higher priority. Although MPAs, especially no-take marine reserves, are important tools for marine conservation (Sala and Giakoumi, 2018), evidence shows that even well-enforced MPAs are not immune to biological invasions (e.g. Silva et al., 2011; Montefalcone et al., 2015; Caselle et al., 2018). In fact, some invasive species, such as the rabbitfishes Siganus luridus and S. rivulatus, may benefit from protection within MPAs and present higher density and<br>biomass within their boundaries than in adjacent unprotected areas (e.g., Rilov et al., 2018; Giakoumi et al., 2019). Thus, additional actions, such as the targeted removal and commercial utilization of the dead specimens, should be adopted within their boundaries for the effective<br>control of invasive species (Giakoumi et al., 2019). Evidence from the Western Mediterranean and the Caribbean Seas demonstrate that applying such additional actions within MPAs can be effective in controlling some invasive species even if these have high dispersal capacity<br>and are widely spread (Barcelo et al., 2016; Usseglio et al., 2017).Finally, the “do nothing” approach received relatively high scores by the expert panel, in agreement with a previous work focusing on the management of three invasive species in Australia (Thresher and Kuris, 2004).We recognize that in some cases, marine invaders have decreased spontaneously, after a growth phase, without any human intervention. For example, C. taxifolia populations have collapsed in several Mediterranean areas after a long period of expansion (Montefalcone et al., 2015). These ‘boom and bust’ dynamics, in which the introduced population grows to outbreak levels (or ‘boom’) followed by dramatic declines (the ‘bust’), represent a well-known phenomenon in invasion biology (Simberloff and Gibbons, 2004). Doing nothing and waiting for the invaders to diminish may be considered the easiest and less expensive solution for their management. Nevertheless, spontaneous population crashes are not guaranteed or may only occur after causing<br>persistent ecological damage. Thus, the “do nothing” option should be considered with great caution.
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