Abstract

Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve and the town of Mahahual are located in the Quintana Roo state, Mexico. The reserve visitation is considerably low and aquatic activities are restricted, while Mahahual receives half a million cruise ship tourists a year. Consequently, a reef monitoring program was started in 2004 in both areas. The program was developed by a local NGO with volunteers brought and trained by a foreign organization. Data is being acquired from two to four times a year at 47 sites using the MBRS protocol. The volunteers’ data show a clear decay in ecosystem health of both areas following similar patterns. Coral cover decreased from 15 - 20% to around 10%, macroalgal abundance increased from 30 - 40% to 60 - 70%, and coral colonies old mortality dramatically augmented in 2005 from values near 0% up to more than 10 - 20%. On the other hand, fish abundance kept roughly constant between 15 - 20 individuals/100m2. These results would seem to indicate that higher scale factors than Mahahual localized tourism are affecting the system in a much important manner. However, important inconsistencies of certain variables within the data appear to show that the data could be highly biased. Hence, various actions are proposed in order to address this issue; improving data reliability and quality control in this kind of projects.

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