fish yields from coral reefs
Herman Cesar 85759
HCESAR at worldbank.org
Wed Nov 22 16:41:55 EST 1995
Dear coral-list,
My name is Herman Cesar. I work on the economic analysis on the coral reef
management project (COREMAP) that the World Bank is assisting with in Indonesia.
I am looking at different threats of reefs in Indonesia (blast fishing; cyanide
fishing, coral mining, sedimentation, overfishing) from an economic point of
view. I would like to get data on these issues to get an idea of the costs of
destructive practives to society and of the possible benefits of sustainable
management of coral reefs in Indonesia.
I have gathered quite some data on prices of fish/invertebrates, etc. and on the
live fish trade. However I lack knowledge and data on fishery productivity on
reefs. I am an economist and I am mostly interested in very rough figures for
broad averages for fisheries in Indonesia/Philippines. The questions that I have
are:
1) If I have a sustainable yield of a coral reef (slope), what is the
composition (in kg.) of a maximum sustainable harvest of reef-related fish
(including small pelagics caught on the reef slope) for areas like Indonesia?
The categories are:
-finfish for local consumption/local market (rabbitfish, parrots, surgeons,etc.)
-finfish for large restaurants, (live-fish) export (groupers, Nap. wrasse, etc.)
-aquarium fish (how many pieces?)
2) If I have a sustainable yield of a coral flat (corals, seagrass, sand),
what is the composition (in kg.) of a maximum sustainable harvest of
reef-related fishery for areas like Indonesia? The categories are:
x finfish
-finfish for local consumption/local market (rabbitfish, parrots, surgeons,etc.)
-finfish for large restaurants, (live-fish) export (groupers, Nap. wrasse, etc.)
-aquarium fish
x invertebrates
-sea-cucmuber
-trochus
-giant clams
-lobster
-others
x algae
-seaweed
x others
3) I take for finfish on reef slopes an average maximum sustainable yield of
10-20 mt/km2/year for reefs with high coral cover and little stress. This seems
to be in line with the literature (Russ, Alcala, McManus, Yap, Gomez, etc.) from
reefs in the Indo-Pacific (much higher than in the Caribbean). Given this
number, what would be the MSY for reef-flats with a mix of coral/ seagrass/
sand?
4) What is the time-frame of recovery of the fishery for areas severely damaged
by blasting or by cyanide fishing?
If you have any rough data on this for Indonesia/Philippines/etc., I would
appreciate these very much,
Herman Cesar
--------------------------------
Herman Cesar
World Bank (EA3AG)
tel: x-(202)-4585759
fax: x-(202)-5221674
e-mail: hcesar at worldbank.org
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