#Status of Coral Reefs 2002 - International Coral Reef Action Network

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2002
user fee systems were found to be appropriate or effective only in areas where there is a
high level of water-based tourism use. The issue of user fees continues to be a major issue
delaying the start up and continuation of effective management in MPAs in Cuba, The
Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos, where management capacity is
relatively high, but the critical limiting factor is funding. Thus most of the declared and
proposed MPAs remain essentially ‘paper parks’.
Bahamas
The Bahamas National Trust, established in 1959 as a statutory, non-governmental, selffunded
organisation, manages the system of national parks and reserves in the Bahamas.
Evidence that the reserves are working is seen in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park notake
fisheries replenishment area, which supports a 31 times greater concentration of
conch than outside the park. Spillover effects have been shown with the park providing
several million conchs per year to outside areas. Grouper tagged in the park have been
caught as far as 240km away, and tagged lobsters replenish Cat Island, which is 110km
away. These successes encouraged the Bahamas Government in 2000 to increase the size
of protected areas by 20%, with the boundaries extending seaward to 200m. The
Government also increased the number of no-take reserves to 6, covering roughly 4%
(800 km 2 ) of the country’s marine environment, with the creation of 5 new no-take areas
(North Bimini, the Berry Islands, South Eleuthera, the Exuma Cays, and the Northern
Abaco Cays). In April 2002, 10 new national parks (total 22) were established doubling the
national park system and including large expanses of wetlands, barrier reefs, forests,
critical breeding and nesting sites, and sites important to science and recreation.
Bermuda
Bermuda has some of the oldest MPAs (established since 1966), and protection and
conservation of resources are relatively strong, particularly of coral reefs and fish
resources. A study on the effect of MPAs on reef fish populations will conclude later this
year. The establishment of 29 new protected areas (in open water) in 2000, along with the
original MPAs, essentially encompasses the island chain. The following areas are included:
Cristobal Colon, North East Breaker, Taunten, Aristo, Mills Breaker, Pelinaion & Rita
Zovetto. A new Biodiversity initiative will hopefully result in further research on reefs;
restructuring of the Ministry of the Environment will help drive this project forward. A
large-scale digital reef map is being created by the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo
that will form the basis of a reef GIS. New research on genomics in the reef and
ecotoxicology of reef organisms is developing at the Bermuda Biological Station for
Research.
Following concerns on the decline of fisheries, the government created 3 seasonally
protected and 29 permanently protected fisheries reserves in the 1970s. In 1990, the
government banned commercial fish traps, but by then the Nassau grouper was
commercially extinct in their waters. All fish traps are now abolished and there is greater
awareness of the consequences of over fishing, such that the reef fisheries have a good
chance of recovery. The Ministry of the Environment sets minimum sizes for allowable
species with the aim of preserving younger fish stocks. Some species have been added to
the Protected Species Order and cannot be taken at all. They include the gag grouper (fine
scale), Nassau grouper, red grouper, deer hamlet, green hamlet, mutton hamlet, and the
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