Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005

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Status of Caribbean Coral Reefs after Bleaching and Hurricanes in 2005Mesoamerican Reef Ma n ag e m e n t a n d Co n s e r vat i o n EffortsA number of regional conservation and management initiatives are being implemented tomonitor, track, and promote the sustainable use and conservation of the MAR including: theHealthy Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem Initiative; the GEF/World Bank Mesoamerica BarrierReef System Project; The Nature Conservancy Mesoamerica Reef Program; and the WWFMesoamerican Reef Ecoregional Program, and the ICRAN Mesoamerican Reef Alliance. Thereis relatively good collaboration among these and the many local conservation programs aimedat reducing threats to reefs and improving reef management. In 2006, these regional groupsjoined forces with numerous local partner organizations to conduct the largest regionalassessment of reef health ever conducted in the region. More than 320 reef sites were surveyedin Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras using the 2006 AGRRA (plus) protocol. These dataare being used for regional, national and local planning, management, and reporting efforts bythe partner organizations.If large-scale bleaching events continue to increase in frequency and severity, the coralreefs are likely to suffer further degradation. Whether these reefs will be able to maintaintheir ecological integrity will depend largely on their resilience, as well as the effectivenessof management efforts aimed at reducing other anthropogenic stress. Current and proposedbleaching management actions within the MAR are focused on identifying and protecting reefsthat may be naturally more resistant to bleaching, have higher bleaching tolerance, and/ora greater ability to recover from bleaching (resilience), as well as traditional approaches forreducing or eliminating other anthropogenic stresses.The areas that appear to be intrinsically resistant or resilient to bleaching can then be integratedwithin a regional MPA, which includes about 64 marine and coastal protected areas. These moreresistant or resilient reefs may exhibit environmental (e.g. strong current or wave exposure,shading, etc.) or intrinsic factors (e.g. abundant heat-tolerant species) that help protect themfrom rising sea temperatures and allow them to potentially ‘reseed’ other reefs that are moreaffected by future bleaching events.While traditional reef management efforts have focused on the management of MPAs, recentemphasis has been on the development of private sector partnerships aimed at promotingbetter management practices to reduce environmental impacts, particularly in tourism,fishing, agriculture and aquaculture industries.Co n c l u s i o n s a n d Re c o m m e n d at i o n sAlthough the number and scope of marine conservation programs has grown tremendouslyin the last decade, continued degradation from mass coral bleaching and hurricanes has thepotential to prevent reef recovery and even further accelerate reef damage. Climate-relatedstressors, in combination with many increasing chronic anthropogenic stressors, could leadto unprecedented collapse of the Mesoamerican reef ecosystem and the many livelihoods thatdepend upon it. It has been suggested that the degree to which mass bleaching will affect coralreefs over the long term may depend on the extent of additional environmental stressors (overfishing,pollution, habitat destruction), the degree to which corals are able to acclimate or adaptto the rising temperatures, the frequency of these disturbances, and whether these repeateddisturbances compound each other. The MAR reef management community needs to increase58
Status of the Mesoamerican Reef after the 2005 Coral Bleaching Eventthe understanding of how different coral reefs will respond to continued ocean warming. Suchinformation can be incorporated into preventative strategies and aid in adaptive responses andmonitoring.There was no organized and immediate bleaching monitoring response to the 2005 bleachingevent. Most of the planned monitoring efforts (MBRS Synoptic Monitoring) occurred beforethe main effects of the bleaching event in late October. There is an urgent need to establish aMAR ‘Bleach Watch’ rapid response program.A Coral Bleach Watch Rapid Response Contingency Plan for the MAR would: i) incorporate theNOAA ‘HotSpot’ system of forecasting bleaching events into the local managers networks; ii)make available early warnings of any major bleaching episode; iii) measure the spatial extentand severity of large scale bleaching events through all phases of the event; iv) assess ecologicalimpacts of such events (8 – 10 months later); v) involve stakeholders in reef monitoringactivities; vi) enhance communication and awareness on bleaching and the effects of climatechange on the MAR; and vii) provide critical information necessary to evaluate implications ofbleaching events for management, policies and strategies.Finally, managers need to continue to reinforce efforts to improve watershed management andenforcement of fishing, tourism and coastal development regulations, to reduce the stress oncoral reefs to provide them with a better chance to recover from bleaching events.The Healthy Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem Initiative is a multi-institutional effort thatgenerates user-friendly tools to measure the health of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem,and delivers scientifically credible reports to improve decision-making that effectivelysustain social and ecosystem well-being. The Initiative focuses on three over-archinggoals:zx Promoting the adoption and application of eco-health and socioeconomicindicators by managers, policy makers and other leaders concerned with theintegrity of the Mesoamerican Reef Ecosystem;zx Providing standardized analyses of reliable scientific data to improve reefecosystem management; andzx Serving as a clearing house for information and networking among scienceand conservation partners to improve environmental management andstewardship of reefs.Annual Eco-health Report Cards and triennial State of the Reef Reports will be a mainstay ofthis growing Initiative, which recently published the seminal publication, Guide to Indicatorsof Reef Health and Social Well-being in the Mesoamerican Reef Region. This publication andother information on the Initiative are available from www.healthyreefs.org.59
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Managing for Mass Coral Bleaching:
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Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005

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