The potential use of marine fishery reserves (MFRs) for managing fisheries on tropical Pacific coral reefs was assessed with an extension of the Beverton-Holt model. The effects of year-round fishery closures on harvests in adjacent, exploited areas were evaluated. Potential changes in spawning stock biomass per recruit (SSB/R) and yield per recruit (Y/R), when varying fractions of exploitable reef area were closed to fishing, were estimated from published data, approximated natural and fishing mortality rates, size- and maturity-at-age distributions, and ''transfer'' (emigration and immigration) rates. For select cases, fundamental transfer rates were adjusted for possible density-dependent emigration from closed areas as relative densities decreased in surrounding non-closed areas because of continued fishing. Three hypothetical ''fish types'' were constructed, bracketing the likely extremes in fundamental transfer rates and related life-history parameters of Pacific coral reef fishes: a small-bodied, fast-growing and short-lived, strongly philopatric species of damselfish was contrasted with a large-bodied, relatively slow-growing, long-lived, vagile species of jack. A ''surgeonfish'' type was used to represent intermediate parameter values.Simulations corroborate previous observations that MFRs contribute little, if anything, towards increasing Y/R. Results for the highly vagile jack confirm that rapid transfer rates will negate potential gains in SSB/R resulting from closures. At the opposite extreme, small reef philopatriots like damselfishes would almost never be harvested, because of negligible transfer rates, unless the MFR was periodically opened to fishing. The simulations suggest that the SSB/R of the surgeonfish type is the most likely to benefit from MFRs, because moderate vagility allows biomass to accumulate within the closure despite harvesting in the non-closed area. Results further suggest that growth rate, fishing effort in the non-closed (open) area, natural mortality, and maturity and harvesting schedules importantly influence the potential of MFRs to augment SSB when transfer rates are low to moderate.