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The 600 mile-long Mesoamerican Reef is second in the world to only Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in size. Its coastline’s sandy beaches and azure waters are dotted with several fishing villages. Its picturesque beauty draws thousands of visitors each year to the tourist epicenters Cancun and Belize.
More than 500 species of fish and marine species including large populations of whale sharks live in the waters of the reef. Some of these like grouper, snapper, conch and lobster are extremely important food sources in the region and are exported as well. Sport fishers also flock to the area in search of prized bonefish, tarpon and permit fish.
More than 60 species of coral form the reef including brain, elkhorn and black corals. It is also bordered by mangroves and sea grass beds, which together form feeding and foraging grounds for diverse marine species including sea turtles, sharks and dolphins.
However, the health of the reefs’ marine life and the survival of its fishing communities are now under siege.
Throughout history, fishermen along Central America and Mexico’s Caribbean coast have returned from full-moon nights at sea with large catches that fed their families and sold in the marketplace. Over time, scientists realized that the fish were coming out in masses to mate under the full moon in a swirling cloud-filled dance called a spawning aggregation.
In Belize, the catches have dwindled over the years from a ton a day in the 1970s to a handful of fish in the 1990s. The Nature Conservancy has been working in the area to identify the spots where these aggregations occur, along with World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and the Belizean government. Thirteen spawning aggregation sites have been labeled as no-take zones by the government.
The protection allowed the fish to regenerate without being harvested and the numbers of fish within these sites slowly increased. The government, the Conservancy and other partners also helped the fishers retrain in tourism to earn alternate livelihoods.
In Mexico's Banco Chinchorro Biosphere Reserve, the Conservancy works to monitor the reef and develop marine management plans with local conservation organization Amigos de Sian Ka'an and the reserve staff. We are also working with local landowners along the coast to curb illegal fishing.
A reef under threat
The Mesoamerican Reef stretches along the coast of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras and is composed of some of the world’s most extensive and well developed coral formations. Corals around the world are facing threats from increasing sea temperatures, pollution and physical destruction from boats and anchors. When corals are exposed to higher temperatures and pollution the algae that provide much of their color die and the corals bleach. A few of these corals withstand or recover from these high temperatures and bleaching actions and are called resilient.
The Conservancy is pioneering reef resiliency research that uses science and technical expertise to identify those corals that can withstand threats especially from bleaching events. The Conservancy is working with governments and local organizations to create a network of marine protected areas in the region to protect these resilient corals.
One of the Conservancy’s unique strengths is our ability to bring people together to protect the reef. We work in 12 priority sites along the Mesoamerican Reef and are in a unique position to facilitate the exchange of information and share lessons learned. The Conservancy and partners just completed a 10-year strategic plan for Mesoamerican Reef. The plan lists priorities, strategies and sets the basis for a regional reef monitoring system.
Long-term approaches to protecting the reef and fishers
The Conservancy and its partners do not sit back after a protected area or no take zone has been declared. Instead they work with the government and other agencies to create plans that ensure that rangers and patrollers are hired and that there is financing for patrol boats. They also continuously track spawning aggregations to ensure that the protected areas are in the appropriate places.
The Conservancy helped create a spawning aggregation working group comprised of local fishermen, researchers, reserve staff and other practitioners working on spawning aggregation monitoring in the region.In Mexico, the Conservancy is regularly training local fishers and volunteers to identify and validate spawning aggregation sites. The methods being used here were originally used in Belize.
The Nassau grouper is critically endangered due to heavy fishing pressures throughout the region. Nassau grouper is a reef fish species and a preferred food for coastal communities in the Caribbean and along the Mesoamerican Reef. Despite protection efforts at national levels very little is known about the recovery of the species. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (UADY) conducted a study using existing data, literature and expertise at known spawning aggregation sites to help the Conservancy and partners better conserve this vital species.
Throughout the Mesoamerican Reef fishing doesn’t just generate income, but is a way of life handed down across generations. Only recently communities and conservationists realized that the seas’ bounty is not limitless and a few restrictions need to be made so that fish don’t disappear from the sea. Fishing families need other means of livelihoods that are closely tied to the sea.
In Honduras, on the bay islands of Cayos Cochinos the Conservancy is working with local partners on two alternate livelihood projects. In the East End project they have built an ecotourism complex that includes a restaurant that community members manage. In the Rio Esteban project, closer to the Cayos Cochinos Marine Natural Monument, three families that once depended on diving for lobster now run a restaurant supplied by an organic family farm.
The Conservancy and partners are initiating a coral reef bleach watch program across the Mesoamerican Reef. Dive operators and tour guides are being trained to inform marine practitioners when they spot coral bleaching.
Every day Conservancy scientists and conservationists are working against the clock along the Mesoamerican Reef to protect the reef’s corals, its fishes and the livelihoods of the people who depend on it for survival.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Mangroves line the shore near Belize's Mesoamerican Reef © Christopher Griffiths /TNC; Nassau Grouper a native of Mesoamerican Reef waters. © Nancy Sefton.
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