Abstract

Traditionally, wildlife management was either Custodial or Manipulative Management both of which, though acceptable are highly subjective. Artificial reefs are a common example of manipulating a fish population arguably by aggregating fish or increasing the biomass. However, if the artificial reef is deployed within a protected area (custodial), then the outcome is more important than the mechanism. With Jamaica’s inshore fisheries severely depleted, its Government has taken steps towards reversing this by implementing 14 Special Fishery Conservation Areas or fish sanctuaries. One such is the Bluefields Bay SFCA where artificial reefs were deployed towards enhancing its fisheries populations. In this reef limited sanctuary, 350 modules of EcoReefs®, designed to mimic elk horn corals, were an-chored in a section (~416 m2 in area) of sand patch completely surrounded by seagrass, at a depth of approximately 8m. The baseline survey showed a low fish species richness and density of 2 and 0.014fish/m2, respectively. Whilst post deployment at 6 and 7 months the fish species richness and densities increased significantly to 16 and 6.72 fish/m2 and 17 and 13.65 fish/m2, respectively. Two years later the density is sustained and this exceptional large gathering of fish remains protected from the threats of fishers while being able to attain larger body sizes and in turn increased fecundity. This coupled with the ”spill over? effect; the artificial reef can function to generate income from eco-tourism to the benefit of the fishers and other community members whilst sustainably financing the management of this community-based sanctuary.

PDF Preview