GCRA
OVERVIEW
FAQ
NEWS
ARTICLES
PHOTOS
REEF ISSUES
RESTORATION
PAPERS
LINKS
|
|
|
|
Reef
Fisheries--Coral Reef Habitat Destruction While fisheries reserves, maintained by restrictions on fisheries gear, clearly work well in many places, the prerequisite for success is a healthy reef ecosystem to support large fish populations. Often this is no longer the case: formerly healthy coral reefs which were covered by live coral and abounded with schools of fish have now become areas where corals and fish are scarce and small. If a former coral reef is now algae dominated, corals and most fish won’t recover even if all fishing is halted, and even the best management will fail to produce an effective reserve that restores fisheries. In these areas habitat deterioration is the real issue, not over fishing, and fisheries management cannot work unless the land is also managed to eliminate sewage, fertilizer, chemicals, and soil erosion. The problem of reef habitat degradation is often not due to due to fishing, but to pollution from the nearby land areas. So, it is wrong to blame fishermen for failure of reefs to recover. Stopping them now won't make a difference if the reef is beyond recovery, but can be helpful if reef water quality is cleaned up. In our view, effective fisheries management requires that habitat health be identified first. If the habitat is not healthy, a dying reef would be better protected if the money were spent on tertiary sewage treatment. Once sewage, pollution, and mud are cleaned up, and damaged areas restored, then controlling fishing can allow the fish to come back. |
|