[3] According to Bill Ballantine the government was pressured by three New Zealand Herald editorials to create the marine reserve around Poor Knights.

A study examined the response of snapper (Pagrus auratus) to the establishment of a no-take reserve around the Poor Knights Islands.

[6] The Poor Knights and two reference locations, Cape Brett and the Mokohinau Islands, were sampled biannually for four years using baited underwater video (BUV).

Following full marine reserve status at the Poor Knights in October 1998, snapper showed significant increases in abundance and biomass relative to fished control locations.

While the incredible increase in snapper density resulted from the immigration of adult fish into the reserve, rather than from within-reserve recruitment, these results suggests that partial fishing regulations, as implemented in the early years of the reserve, are ineffective for protecting targeted species.