Over the last decade WCS has led establishment of 26 legally recognized Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) and trained and supported around 250 local Community Marine Rangers who enforce local fishing laws along 200 miles of coastline in Antongil Bay. The LMMA’s fill a gap in government fisheries management, because the agency responsible for fisheries law enforcement, the Madagascar Fisheries Surveillance Center (CSP) does not maintain a permanent presence in the area. Prior to the creation of the LMMAs, local fisheries were in crisis, because of a combination of unsustainable practices, such as the use of beach seines, and the inability of local communities to exclude outsiders from community fisheries. As a result, fish catches and the incomes of fishers were in decline. To address this problem, the government devolved authority to coastal communities to establish and manage LMMAs. In 2011, as part of a participatory assessment, local community members around LMMAs reported an increase in catch per hour fished; an increase in the size of fish caught; and an increase in the abundance of juvenile fish in the sea. In April 2013, underwater reef surveys showed significantly higher fish density and biomass inside LMMA no-take zones, as compared to fishing sites outside LMMAs. Follow-up surveys in 2015 showed a ten-fold increase in fish biomass from 70 kg/ha to 750 kg/ha within the restricted area of the LMMAs. In the no-take zone of the LMMAs, biomass almost doubled from 450 kg/ha to 750 kg/ha.