REEF FISH FOR THE FUTURE
HOME PAGE

For late developments, check

Reef Fish for the Future in Depth

How to Help:  Help Save Mating Reef Fish or End Destruction of Corals and Killing of Tropical Fishes

Campaign News

U.S. Caribbean
Fishery Conservation
Status, Problems & Opportunities
a Reef Fish for the Future Briefing Paper
by Alexander Stone

The U.S. Caribbean consists of the waters surrounding the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and their respective outlying cays and islets. Within these waters, approximately 1000 small-scale fishers use craft generally smaller than 30 feet to exploit a habitat-dependent and site-resident assemblage of tropical marine organisms. Using a variety of traps as their traditional primary gear, these fishers target lobster, crab, snapper, grouper, and various other reef fishes. In addition, fishers use longlines and other gear to capture conch, shark and billfish.

THE CARIBBEAN FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL AND ITS JURISDICTIONAL QUANDARY

The Caribbean Fishery Management Council exercises jurisdiction over federal waters in this area. However, this federal jurisdiction does not include the vast majority of the area's primary fishing grounds, which all lie inside state-level waters. Because the ocean shelves from which these islands rise are relatively narrow, virtually all reef habitats associated with the islands and their fisheries lie within state-level jurisdiction. In the USVI, this state-level jurisdiction extends 3 miles from the nearest shore (which could be an outlying cay, itself a couple of miles off one of the main USVI islands). In Puerto Rico, this state-level jurisdiction extends a whopping 10+ miles from shore (which, again, could be -- and often is -- the shore of an outlying cay).

This concentration of fishing grounds within state-level waters severely limits the CFMC's ability to directly affect management of U.S. Caribbean fisheries. Instead, CFMC Fishery Management Plans include "recommendations" aimed at the state-level governments. Additionally, the CFMC does what it can through agreements which stipulate that it is the intent of both state-level governments to adopt regulations that parallel those adopted by the CFMC. However, implementation of those agreements is, at best, spotty. Even when implemented, the state-level adoption process will take many years.

Even so, for both Puerto Rico and the USVI, the CFMC (through the National Marine Fisheries Service) is in the best position in terms of staff and other resources to take the lead in developing supporting policy documentation for much-needed management measures. That documentation can then make possible state-level adoption of those recommended policies. So even inside state-level waters, the CFMC has a most helpful role to play.

Notwithstanding the procedural obstacles, since 1985 the CFMC has been implementing a growing suite of Fishery Management Plans (FMPs). This now includes FMPs for Lobster, Queen Conch, Coral, Shallow Water Reef Fish, Billfish, and Sharks. But the fisheries have yet to react positively to those FMPs.

PLUNGING FISH POPULATIONS

Most alarmingly, virtually every species within the Shallow Water Reef Fish FMP management unit is confirmed or strongly suspected of being overfished (which the FMP defines as a spawning stock biomass potential ratio below 20%). Between 1977 and 1985, reef fish catches dropped 39%. From 1985 (when the Shallow Water Reef Fish FMP was adopted) to 1990, catches plunged another 38%. The reef fisheries are now acknowledged to be in a state of crisis, in spite of additional FMP amendments adopted since 1991 to try to slow down the decimation of U.S. Caribbean reef fish stocks. Similar statements can be made for the lobster and queen conch fisheries.

FISH TRAPS: INDISCRIMINATE KILLERS

Central to the fisheries' depletion problem is the use of wire-mesh fish traps as primary gear.

Originally, the traps were made by hand from vines and were inefficient enough to allow sufficient fish escapement to keep fish populations replenished. However, since the late 1940's the traps have been constructed of small-mesh chicken wire that allows very little to escape, whether it's food fish juveniles or nontarget tropicals. So in less than half-a-century, these reef fisheries have been almost obliterated. Algae-grazing parrotfish now dominate fish trap catches, and you almost never see a snapper -- even in Puerto Rico's Snapper Bay (La Parguera).

Wire-mesh fish traps are so indiscriminate and efficient in their catches -- and so potentially damaging to the habitat -- that they were banned in the South Atlantic in the early 1990's and they are being phased out now in the Gulf of Mexico. The eradication of fish traps in those areas has been made possible in part because in those areas fish traps were a "new" gear that found favor in the 1980's. In the Caribbean, however, fish trapping is a traditional activity that harks back to the previous century -- and this makes it a lot more culturally and politically difficult to achieve its elimination. Instead, three-year-old regulations require fish traps to have biodegradably-latched escape panels (so fish can escape a lost trap) and mesh openings are to be no smaller than 2 inches across by the year 2000 (picture in your mind just how small that still is). And enforcement of even that insufficient measure is doubtful (NMFS has ONE enforcement officer for all Puerto Rico).

Given this situation, we do not believe that continued micromanagement of fish minimum sizes and fish trap configurations will be enough to turn these collapsing fisheries around. It has not worked for the last 12 years. Instead, we believe that the best hope and strategy to prevent stock collapse and restore these fisheries lie in designating no-take marine fishery reserves and establishing temporal protection of reef fish spawning aggregations. And there are reasons to believe this approach could work.

MARINE FISHERY RESERVES

The U.S. Caribbean CORAL FMP establishes a framework procedure for the creation of non-consumptive Marine Conservation Districts (MCDs). The CFMC is now moving towards designating such an MCD in federal waters off St. John. Even better, the FMP "endorses" MCD creation inside state-level waters at 10 specific sites in Puerto Rico and 8 in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). And these endorsed sites almost all lend themselves to facilitated state-level action.

Of the10 recommended Puerto Rico MCD areas, 8 lie off landside Commonwealth Natural Reserves, while the other 2 lie off federally protected land areas. In particular, the Natural Reserves all have management plans and enforcement personnel on site. We have recently succeeded in getting the Commonwealth to extend the Mona Island Natural Reserve to include its surrounding marine areas, and are now working with the Commonwealth to develop a management plan for that marine area that includes a no-take fishery reserve. We believe the opportunity is there to repeat this process for perhaps every Natural Reserve and thus create a marine fishery reserve system around Puerto Rico.

All recommended USVI MCD areas are listed on the protected area "wish list" of the Territory's Department of Planning and Natural Resources. In fact, 3 small sites off Southeast St. Thomas were designated in 1994 as Marine Reserves. So there's a favorable precedent here, too. We are working to get those 3 sites linked and expanded, as well as create another marine reserve off East St. Croix.

SPAWNING AGGREGATION AREA CLOSURES

The Shallow Water Reef Fish FMP defines a framework procedure to establish temporal closures at documented reef fish spawning sites -- where groupers and snappers congregate at set times of the year in highly vulnerable assemblages to reproduce. In fact, since 1993, 3 such closure areas for red hind and mutton snapper have been established with state-level cooperation in waters off western Puerto Rico, St. Croix and St. Thomas. We believe focused effort can make similar closures inside state-level waters possible for known aggregations of tiger groupers and other species, while further investigation by NMFS would validate other spawning aggregations yet to be adequately documented.

ESSENTIAL FISHERY HABITAT

There is already much documentation in the Coral FMP validating the importance of both reef and sea-grass habitats to fisheries species. Reef marine life and its habitat exist in interdependent synergies that in real life preclude regulatory separation. In fact, this is recognized by the establishment of Marine Conservation Districts within the Coral FMP, where the habitat and its fish species are addressed together. To the extent possible, the CFMC needs to be convinced to continue this treatment of habitat.

The habitat "hook" may provide an opportunity for stricter limitation of wire mesh fish traps. There is precedent for this from both the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic, where decision-makers leaned significantly on habitat impact considerations to curtail fish trap usage.

The fact that fish trap catches are now dominated by grazing parrotfish is also significant in regards to habitat. With algae-grazing sea urchin populations still dramatically depressed throughout the Caribbean, it is parrotfish that have been left to "hold the line" against algal overgrowth of coral reefs. How much more can parrotfish be exploited before the habitat is compromised? The answer may point the way to a policymaking opportunity.

Just as in the case of fish traps, the late 1940's saw the beginning of a rush towards coastal development that has now eliminated much of the U.S. Caribbean's fish nursery habitats. On top of that, wastewater discharges and non-point runoff directly add great algae-growing nutrient pulses to habitats already being depleted of their algae-grazing fishes. The CFMC should actively encourage state-level governments to address landbased impacts to the area's shore-hugging fishery habitats.

SO WHAT DO WE PROPOSE TO DO?

Using the CFMC as a lever for state-level action, we propose to focus on marine reserve creation, spawning aggregation temporal protection, essential fishery habitat conservation, and fish trap usage limitations. To achieve what we consider necessary state-level regulatory action, we will need to do a lot of on-the-ground grassroots organizing and user trust building to offset the inevitable opposition of those who will think their territory is being invaded or their financial interests threatened.

Finally, patience and persistence are essential. For both island governments, as well as the CFMC, almost nothing is going to happen fast. But experience has shown us, both here as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic, that steady effort over a 2-4 year time horizon will produce results.

To obtain a full copy of ReefKeeper's Reef Fish for the Future Campaign plan, write ReefKeeper International, 2809 Bird Avenue-Ste. 162, Miami, FL 33133 or e-mail [email protected].

Reef Fish for the Future in Depth

How to Help

Campaign News