Report on reefs around Utila (Bay Islands, Honduras)

Stephen Box, Managing Director, Utila Centre for Marine Ecology (UCME), posted the following report about Utila's reefs on NOAA's coral-list:

UCME is investigating a range of topics on the island including the fish populations, fishing pressure, coral health, algal dynamics, mangrove destruction and sea grass productivity.

Unfortunately, some of your observations are fairly accurate. Utila is struggling to balance development with sustainable resource management, as it moves from a fishing based economy to one largely reliant on tourism.

Honduras as a whole and the Bay Islands and Utila in particular are severely hindered by a lack of knowledge about their natural resources and the technical and financial capacity to effectively control and manage this transition.

This is one reason why UCME was established as a non-governmental organisation which could link scientific results from applied research to national authorities and community based conservation and management initiatives. . . .

Coral cover: Utila was hit hard in 1998 by a bleaching event and hurricane Mitch. This combination was likely responsible for a large amount of dead shallower corals (less than 10m) dominated by Montastraea annularis (mainly on the south side of the island). Since Ma is struggling to recruit across the Caribbean the ability for this to recover seems limited. As the cover of this major reef builder declines the space is increasingly being taken up by algae, likely hindering coral recovery further. In Utila this is augmented by the decreasing population of herbivorous grazers through by catch and removal of top predators, grouper etc (see below).

Utila is a classic example of the necessity for ecological balance on reef systems and the limited capacity of reefs to recover from major disturbances if their fish populations (and other key species) are removed.

On the north side of the island and on the outer banks and deeper reefs, coral cover is far healthier but their resilience is also likely to be severely degraded, they just haven?t been as impacted by external influences yet.

As for the extensive fishing . . .there are two main drivers for this... Export of grouper and snapper to the US; and increasing local demand due to migration to the island from the mainland.

Utila is a fishing hub for the export of grouper and snapper to the United States. Whilst U.S legislation is protecting U.S fish stocks it seems to be putting increasing pressure on the stocks of neighbouring countries such as Honduras that have limited capacity to manage their fisheries. This is an ongoing problem and we are now working with the fish plant here to devise a local management plan and some fundamental fishing best practices to try and abate the current trends. Fishing is still an important sector of the local economy and since the demand for fish remains constant and price high (in relation to local living costs) the fish stocks will continue to be heavily exploited until a solution can be found or they run out of fish.

The migration to the island due to the economic growth is attracting mainly low skilled labour from the mainland to work in construction (housing, hotels etc) since this labour force is also poorly paid they will often supplement their income and diet by fishing on local reefs.

The economic migration is also causing mangroves to be felled to clear the way for cheap housing in the swamps. At the other end of the spectrum large developers are increasingly clearing mangroves to make way for expatriate holiday homes, marinas, canals etc. Mangroves in the Bay Islands are protected by national and local law (it is illegal to cut them) but without the capacity or will to enforce this law the cutting continues. However to put this into context, the actual percentage of the mangroves that have been removed in this manor is still relatively small since the majority of the island's area (80%) is mangroves (see good images on google earth). But unless some effective enforcement of existing laws can be put in place I assume this proportion will increase steadily.

And finally, . . .sewage treatment. . . . Most houses currently have septic tanks, and the municipality are putting in a main sewage system and treatment plant, as I write, which is due to come on line later in the year. However many of the buildings along the water front still discharge sewage in to the water. Once again however this needs a contextual reference since the likely quantity of effluent is fairly small given the current population of the island versus the volume of water it is discharged into (ie the dilution). I am not saying that the current situation should be condoned rather that the current scale of that problem is likely not the biggest issue that the reefs are facing and one issue which local government are actually tackling. We have a project planned in the summer to evaluate water quality within the mangroves and adjacent reefs to be able to quantify exactly how much of a problem this currently is and to use as a baseline for when the treatment plant comes on line.

To summarise, Utila is suffering the same issues that many locations around the region are but its reefs and mangroves comparative to other areas are still in fairly good shape. The island is a microcosm for the good the bad and the human of coral reef and tropical island ecology which is what makes it a fascinating place to work and to study. If through our work here we can identify potential solutions to some of these pertinent issues it may well provide a great model for how small communities lacking in institutional governance can solve their reef management issues at a local level.

Stephen Box PhD
Managing Director
Utila Centre for Marine Ecology
Bay Islands
Honduras