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On the occasion of the 10th Indo-Pacific Fish Conference (http://ipfc10.criobe.pf/) to be held in Tahiti in October 2017, it seemed timely to update Randall’s 1985 list of the fishes known from French Polynesia. Many studies focusing on fishes in this area have been published since 1985, but Randall’s list remains the authoritative source. Herein we present an expanded species list of 1,301 fishes now known to occur in French Polynesia and we review the expeditions and information sources responsible for the over 60% increase in the number of known species since the publication of Randall’s checklist in 1985. Our list of the fishes known from French Polynesia includes only those species with a reliably verifiable presence in these waters. In cases where there was any doubt about the identity of a species, or of the reliability of a reported sighting, the species was not included in our list. 

Marine protected area (MPA) networks, with varying degrees of protection and use, can be useful tools to achieve both conservation and fisheries management benefits. Assessing whetherMPAnetworks meet their objectives requires data from Before the establishment of the network to better discern natural spatiotemporal variation and preexisting differences from the response to protection. Here, we use a Progressive‐ChangeBACIPSapproach to assess the ecological effects of a network of five fully and three moderately protectedMPAs on fish communities in two coral reef habitats (lagoon and fore reef) based on a time series of data collected five times (over three years) Before and 12 times (over nine years) After the network's establishment on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia. At the network scale, on the fore reef, density and biomass of harvested fishes increased by 19.3% and 24.8%, respectively, in protected areas relative to control fished areas. Fully protected areas provided greater ecological benefits than moderately protected areas. In the lagoon, density and biomass of harvested fishes increased, but only the 31% increase in biomass in fully protectedMPAs was significant. Non‐harvested fishes did not respond to protection in any of the habitats. We propose that these responses to protection were small, relative to otherMPAassessments, due to limited compliance and weak surveillance, although other factors such as the occurrence of a crown‐of‐thorns starfish outbreak and a cyclone after the network was established may also have impeded the ability of the network to provide benefits. Our results highlight the importance of using fully protectedMPAs over moderately protectedMPAs to achieve conservation objectives, even in complex social–ecological settings, but also stress the need to monitor effects and adapt management based on ongoing assessments.