Marine Reserves Praised

Coral in marine reserves in Exuma Land and Sea Park, a protected area, is flourishing, the new study which is to be published in the international Science journal has found

The study is good news for the Bahamas National Trust, which has been promoting the benefits of no-fishing zones for decades.

"The is great news for us because it shows that all of our efforts in the past to have these marine reserves is bearing fruit," Glen Bannister, president of the Bahamas National Trust told The Bahama Journal.

"It also validates that our fish stocks, conch and lobster and everything in that area are basically multiplying and it shows that we need to do more of this, so this is actually scientific evidence of what we’ve been saying all along."

The study took place over a four-year period; two of those years were spent in the Exuma Land and Sea Park.

Researcher Dr. Dan Brumbaugh, a senior conservation scientist and a council member of the BNT, led the team in the Exumas, which stayed at the trust’s Warderick Wells site during the study.

The Exuma marine reserves have had a very beneficial affect on coral and help reefs withstand the impact of climate change, coral bleaching, pollution and other threats, according to the study.

Scientists had been concerned that large fish returning to protected areas of the Caribbean could disturb the delicate balance of reefs, and feared that larger predators would eat the smaller fish, which graze on coral and keep down harmful algae, but the study has proved otherwise.

The study shows that rather than eating all the parrotfish – the main creatures that clean up the reef – returning predators, such as the Nassau grouper, only eat the smaller species.

The study also showed that parrotfish bigger than 10 inches long are able to escape the predators’ jaws, and do a more efficient job at removing algae from coral, stopping it from being smothered; and it looked at what would happen when a ban on commercial fishing allowed the reef’s top predator, the Nassau Grouper, to return to its former hunting grounds.

This, said the report, is critical for Caribbean reefs, which were hit by the mass death of sea urchins, the main creatures to feed on the algae in 1983, due to disease.

"This is one of the first papers that verifies what the trust has been saying all of these years," said Mr. Bannister. "Over the last 20 years the park has seen a tremendous increase in the number of fish, in the park and in the surrounding area. This is a true reserve effect."

Director of Fisheries, Michael Braynen, said that the study not only indicates the usefulness of marine reserves and the role they play in helping the marine environment to recover, it also shows that more marine reserves need to be established in The Bahamas.

"The benefits that are coming from these reserves are growing day by day," Mr. Braynen told The Bahama Journal.

"The study simply tells us that this is an activity that we need to continue being engaged in and it’s something that we need more of to preserve the marine environment and commercial fisheries in The Bahamas for the future."

Mr. Braynen said that there are plans underway to establish more marine reserves in The Bahamas.

"Certainly the areas that we have now are not sufficient," he said. "We need to really have a network of these areas throughout the country in different parts of the country, with different types of environments being protected in each one of them."

The Exuma Land and Sea Park, one of the oldest protected marine areas in the Caribbean region, was established in 1959 and has been a no-fishing zone for 20 years. This 112,640-acre park was the first of its kind in the world and is famous for its pristine beauty.

Marine Reserves in The Bahamas are also located in North Bimini, the Berry Islands, South Eleuthera and the Northern Abaco Cays.