Management Plan - Glover's Reef Marine Reserve

Glovers Reef Marine Reserve – Management Plan
James and Ginsburg (1979) described both the leeward and windward deep reefs of Glover’s
based on their observations to depths of 300 m from a research submersible. The deepestgrowing
hermatypic coral observed was a small Agaricia fragilis at 102 m on the eastern side of
Glover’s.
The reefs of Glovers were impacted by the coral bleaching event in 1995 (McField (2001)).
Three sites surveyed on the Atoll in October and November 1995, representing patch reef,
back reef and fore reef, showed 44%, 27%, and 61% of the reefs affected, respectively. When
these sites were re-surveyed in May 1996, the degree of bleaching had decreased to 6%, 7%
and 12%, repectively (McField, 2001).
Glovers’ reefs were
again severely
impacted by both a
mass bleaching event
and hurricane Mitch
in 1998, and again in
2005 (Table 14).
Hurricane Mitch, the
fourth strongest storm
documented this
century with winds of
290 km/hr, passed
about 120 miles
southeast of Glover’s
Table 14: Local and Regional Hurricane Impacts
Event Year Scale of event
Coral bleaching event 2005 Extent of bleaching unknown
Hurricane Ivan 2004 Increased turbidity, coral rubble
deposited on southeast beach
of Half Moon Caye
Hurricane Iris 2001
Hurricane Keith 2000
Hurricane Mitch 1998 Category 5
Coral bleaching event 1998 Catastrophic bleaching
Coral bleaching event 1995 Small scale bleaching
White band disease on Since late Major Caribbean wide die-off
Acroporid corals
Viral epidemic in urchin
Diadema antillarum
population
1980s
1983 Major Caribbean wide die-off
Reef during the last days of October 1998. Preliminary reports described extensive damage to
the windward eastern and northern fore-reefs, with both branching and massive corals affected
down to a depth of 10 m. Many of the corals remaining were severely abraded, with little living
tissue remaining. Coral mortality was estimated to be 60 – 70% (Bright 1999).
Investigations by Kramer & Kramer (2000) indicated that shallow (1–3 m) reef and deep (8 –17
m) fore reef sites on Glovers experienced the most disturbance of Belize’s three atolls. Shallow
windward reefs suffered severe hurricane damage and recent mortality, while bleaching and
diseases were more prevalent on the leeward reefs. These reefs still displayed remnant
bleaching (mainly ‘pale’) up to 10 months after the mass-bleaching event recorded in
September 1998. They also reported a consistently high incidence of coral disease on the
Glovers fore reefs compared to other fore reef sites surveyed in Belize. In relation to damage
from hurricane Mitch, the east facing shallow reef sites sustained the greatest damage, with the
NE Glover’s survey site having the highest degree of damage in the entire Mesoamerican
barrier reef region. In addition, exposed deep fore reef sites on Glovers had higher than
average damage, consisting primarily of knocked over or broken corals. This region had coral
recruitment reduced by 80% (Mumby 1999). Glovers also showed higher levels of recent coral
mortality than the other two atolls; this was especially high for the East Glovers site, located on
the fore reef near Middle Caye. Total mortality was higher on the shallow reefs, in some cases
as high as 80% (Kramer & Kramer 2000).
McField (2001) surveyed two windward fore reef sites on the Atoll in 1997 and 1999. Coral
cover at the Middle Caye site declined over the two-year period from 14.6% to 6.4%, and at the
site on the southeast end of the atoll it also declined, from 23.6% to 11.1%. Species diversity
also declined at both sites. At the same time, substrate cover increased proportionally, with
macroalgae showing a slight, non-significant decline. These changes were attributed to the
impacts of the bleaching event and hurricane Mitch in 1998.
Wildtracks / Wildlife Conservation Society, 2007 31