A new global study from the University of Sydney reveals that existing environmental protections account for only around 10% of fish stocks on coral reefs worldwide. While promising, this finding underscores the significant room for improvement in preserving these vital marine ecosystems. The research highlights the need for strategic conservation efforts, including expanding marine protected areas and implementing effective fisheries management, to ensure the long-term sustainability of coral reef fish populations and the communities that depend on them.
Smart Debunkery: Conservation Does Little
Global fish survey data from nearly 2,600 tropical reef sites has been used in the study led by Professor Joshua Cinner at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University. This revealed a shock statistic: only roughly 10 percent of the total fish biomass (the weight and size added together) on coral reefs can be supported by existing conservation.
What Professor Cinner, Director of the Thriving Oceans Research Hub and co-author highlighted is that “reaching these thresholds should sound alarm bells for reef fishers given the millions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods as well as a key source of protein”. The absence of enforced protection is therefore also likely to be at peril to the existence of coastal communities worldwide through overfishing. If we protect fish then stocks can recover, and people benefit downstream too. The study highlights the critical need for more and better conservation to ensure these threatened ecosystems are adequately protected.
How We Can Make the Most Out of the 30×30 Initiative
The researchers’ examination also noted the influence of the 30×30 initiative announced at the recent UN Biodiversity Conference in 2022. The goal of the initiative is to conserve 30% of all terrestrial, freshwater and ocean areas around the globe by 2030.
The researchers found that fully protected reefs are the only ones producing fish at a rate approaching what would be possible on healthy reefs and that scaling up full-protection to 30% of the total reef area could grow global fish biomass by 28%. Nonetheless, the authors stress that proper placement of these protected areas is key to capitalizing on their benefits. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Dr. Iain Caldwell said: “No take zones are punching above their weight, particularly when well complied with and enforced, but they’re not the only tool in the box for increasing fish populations. Whilst fishing-free areas deliver the largest increases in fish biomass per unit area protected, other types of fisheries management that allow access but restrict activity can also achieve restoration and may be more practical for people who rely on reef fish for their lives and livelihoods.
Release the Power of Fisheries Management
They also examined what the effect would be of imposing fishing restrictions, like net and speargun bans, on unmanaged coral reefs. But compared to the stocks that would be recovered from tighter fisheries management, their predictive model showed conservations efforts need some aim sharpening: global coral reef fish stock could be boosted by an additional 10.5%, while it had only met a 25% success rate beforehand.
According to Professor Cinner, the key is using a suite of tools and approaches: “Fisheries restrictions aren’t as effective as no-take MPAs on a per area basis, but they tend to be less controversial with fishers, which means compliance can be better, and they can be implemented at very large scales. But saving fish on coral reefs will require us to be much more, well… fishy in our conservation efforts. It emphasizes the importance of an integrated, comprehensive approach that takes maritime protected areas and fishery management into consideration to ensure their capabilities to help protect both coral reefs as well as those who depend on them in a balanced way.
