[Coral-List] Dominican Republic Bans all Shark and Parrot / Doctor / Surgeon Fish fishing, also urchins

[Damien Beri]

Dear Coral-Listers

Since a lot of you are curious about the photos I thought I should just share them to this thread.

If you would like to use the images for a study, or publish them in some manner please shoot me an email.  This images are the property of Reefined Arts LLC.  Otherwise the ability to download them is right there for personal viewing.  Hope some good can come from all this bad.  

One video shows an Acropora Cervicornis with active (RTN).  GPS coordinates are in the image with the GPS radio.  This area was under constant fishing pressure, I also included images of recently killed parrot fish and lobster which was hunted for 24/7 out there.  The fishing boats never came closs to me but we always saw them in the distance (1-15 miles).  Many people who worked the whale snorkeling expeditions said they have seen tons of shark fins on-top of the boats in past years.  They all attest to overfishing being the main cause for total loss in biodiversity.  Prior to my arrival in the Dominican republic, I worked a month in the Turks and Caicos and all the Acropora Cervicornis I saw there was experiencing severe RTN as well, similar to whats shown in the Dominican Republic videos attached.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_gfY6pHKKTuaFJlU2F0cVdNWkk?usp=sharing




Thanks,
Damien Beri
Chief Scientist 
Reefined Arts



On Jun 17, 2017, at 1:49 PM, Ruben Torres <ruben at reefcheck.org> wrote:

> Just in from Dominican Republic:
> 
> Francisco Dominguez Brito, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources issued a resolution to ban all shark species fishing indefinitely. Also a moratorium for 2 years on all species of Parrot Fish and Surgeon/Doctor fish in all Dominican Republic waters. Also urchins will be protected from collecting or harvesting as a measure to control algae growth on reefs.
> 
> 
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