Marine reserves have been proposed as a remedy for overfishing and declining marine biodiversity, but concern that reserves would inherently reduce yields has impeded their implementation. It was found that management of fisheries through reserves and management through effort control produce identical yields under a reasonable set of simplifying assumptions corresponding to a broad range of biological conditions. Indeed, for populations with sedentary adults (invertebrates and reef fishes), reserves have important advantages for sustainability, making marine reserves the preferred management approach.