Fish numbers drop as reefs take a bashing

From a post on New Scientist:

The battering taken by Caribbean coral reefs is finally taking its toll on the fish that dwell in them, a large new study suggests.

"We are seeing striking declines that are amazingly consistent across a huge area and very different types of fish," says Michelle Paddack of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. "The losses affect both large fish that are hunted by fishers and small fish that aren't."

Paddack's team reanalysed 48 studies that had taken place in 318 reefs since 1955 and found that after decades of stability, fish numbers have started to go down. Starting from the mid 1990s, in all regions covered by the studies, fish numbers have fallen by between 2.7 and 6% per year.

Paddack suspects that as well as overfishing, coral demise from disease and bleaching is to blame, together with pollution from coastal development.

Collectively, these events create a "degradation debt", Paddack says. "Coral reefs have been breaking down since the early 70s. Once the damage is extensive enough, fish lose opportunities to find food and shelter."