The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef got a C on its report card this year - meaning the overall health and state of the reef is fair. That's not good, but it's better than 2012, which was poor. This report card is done every two years and includes the evaluation of the living coral, commercial fish and other marine life found near the reef. The report was launched today at the Biltmore and the coordinators told us that there have been slight improvements in the health of the reef BUT there is still a lot to do to increase that C to a B or an A.
Roberto Pott, Belize Coordinator, Health Reefs for Health People
"One of the highlight is that Belize is still the country to watch. I mean we protected Parrot Fish in 2009, so that has been working for us. Hol Chan recently multiplied their protected areas and that has been working for us. So those are some of the things that has really worked. Turneffe came on stream in 2012, and so there are a lot of positive aspect and the outlook is very good for Belize. But there are the tougher areas to deal with, sewage and infrastructure needed for sanitation in our developing tourism destinations, San Pedro and Placencia. That's a big concern for Belize."
Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
"You know when you're going to school there was a report card which says you either get an A or you get an F? Well that's what the Healthy Reef Initiative has strived to do. It's an attempt to give to stakeholders and to policy makers and managers, a snapshot of how your reef is doing at the end of the day. So there are key indicators that they use. They look coral cover and fish population. So they now tell you 'hey Belize, in this area this is your grade'. and we believe that you have this grade because of A,B,C and D. so it's an attempt to now advise us as managers, as policy makers where are the areas that you're doing good, because there are areas that there are improvements. So take for instance the area of herbivorous fish. We have enacted laws which have protected the parrot fish and herbivores in 2009. And their saying 'you know what, keep up the good work but maybe you need to do a little more enforcement. We're not saying your number is dropping but we'd like to see them go up a little bit more.' One of the 8 things in Belize is that we still have an open access fishery. Open access meaning that once you're a permanent resident you can go out and fish. It's not a good recipe for sustainability at the end of the day. So what we need to do is improve that. So we need to now, as mentioned earlier, roll out what we are referring to as our manage access program, which is an attempt to now regulate how people fish and the number of people who are fishing. Our grade is fair, it's not poor, it fair but it's not good either. So it is an indication that we have more work to do."
The report is based on an extensive study of 248 coral reef sites along more than 600 miles of the coast of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Some of the sites studied and evaluated in Belize are Lighthouse Reef and Laughing Bird Caye among others.
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