Current and Future Sustainability of Island Coral Reef Fisheries

Abstract

Overexploitation is one of the principal threats to coral reef diversity, structure, function, and resilience [1, 2]. Although it is generally held that coral reef fisheries are unsustainable [3-5], little is known of the overall scale of exploitation or which reefs are overfished [6]. Here, on the basis of ecological footprints and a review of exploitation status [7, 8], we report widespread unsustainability of island coral reef fisheries. Over half (55%) of the 49 island countries considered are exploiting their coral reef fisheries in an unsustainable way. We estimate that total landings of coral reef fisheries are currently 64% higher than can be sustained. Consequently, the area of coral reef appropriated by fisheries exceeds the available effective area by approximately 75,000 km(2), or 3.7 times the area of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and an extra 196,000 km(2) of coral reef may be required by 2050 to support the anticipated growth in human populations. The large overall imbalance between current and sustainable catches implies that management methods to reduce social and economic dependence on reef fisheries are essential to prevent the collapse of coral reef ecosystems while sustaining the well-being of burgeoning coastal populations.

Recovery of aU.S. Endangered Fish

“…Unfortunately, our study shows that there is a marked difference between the endorsement of such initiatives and the actual implementation of corrective measures. The ongoing decline in marine fisheries catches [5,9,[33][34][35][36] and the ecological and socioeconomic consequences of a fisheries crisis call for a greater political will of countries worldwide if further fisheries declines and their wider consequences are to be prevented. Effective transfer of improved scientific capacities to policy, achieved through a transparent and participatory process, will be more important than ever in stabilizing our food supply from the sea and preventing unnecessary losses due to management deficiencies.…”

“…Effective transfer of improved scientific capacities to policy, achieved through a transparent and participatory process, will be more important than ever in stabilizing our food supply from the sea and preventing unnecessary losses due to management deficiencies. Current projections suggest that total demand for fisheries products is likely to increase by approximately 35 million metric tonnes by 2030 (,43% of the maximum reported catch in the late 1980s) [3,4] and by approximately 73% for small-scale fisheries by 2025 [35]. This contrasts sharply with the 20% to 50% reduction in current fishing effort suggested for achieving Figure 5.…”

Commercial coral-reef fisheries across Micronesia: A need for improving management

“…While many coral-reef fisheries are exploited beyond a level considered sustainable (Newton et al 2007), the true extent of sustainability is difficult to gauge because fish landings are often insufficiently documented, or unreported (Zeller et al 2006). Throughout Micronesia, one of the greatest challenges for fisheries management has been the dearth of reliable data that are essential for the evaluation Communicated by Biology Editor Dr. Stephen Swearer of exploitation status and policy (Dalzell et al 1996).…”

Transitional states in marine fisheries: adapting to predicted global change

“…Tropical fishers make up more than 90 per cent of the estimated 3.5 million fishermen in the world (Badjeck et al 2010), often in countries twice as dependent on fisheries for dietary protein than other regions (Allison et al 2009). Although the widespread overexploitation in many reef fisheries (Newton et al 2007) may have resulted in communities tolerant to additional climate-change effects (Vinebrooke et al 2004), such effects are not ubiquitous and many reef fisheries remain vulnerable.…”