[Coral-List] Bumphead parrotfish Endangered Species protection petition
Douglas Fenner
dfenner at blueskynet.as
Sat Feb 6 19:07:04 EST 2010
I just found out that an NGO (Wildearth Guardians) in the U.S. has
petitioned for the bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) to receive
protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The petition makes
interesting reading, and can be found at:
http://www.wildearthguardians.org/Wildlife/ProtectingEndangeredSpecies/TheWesternArk/tabid/124/Default.asp
As I understand it, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a part of
NOAA, has 90 days to review the petition, and decide whether it as worthy of
investigating. They may only use information contained in the petition
during this phase. If they decide it is worth investigating, then they have
a year to make a final decision, and can gather information from any and all
sources.
I would point out one small correction to the petition, and that is it
states that American Samoa has protected bumphead parrotfish. That is not
true, the promise was made to protect them about 2 years ago, but it has not
happened yet. It is said to be close to happening.
Bumphead Parrotfish along with other large reef fish such as Humphead Wrasse
and several shark species are particularly vulnerable to fishing, and
fishing has reduced populations greatly in many locations, particularly near
people. On most near-pristine reefs, large fish often referred to as apex
predators can represent around 50% of all the reef fish biomass, while near
people they often represent a negligable portion of the biomass, and are the
primary reason why reefs near people often have half or less of the fish
biomass of near-pristine reefs. Removing such a huge portion of the natural
ecosystem carries with it the risk of unknown future consequences, much as
the removal of herbivores had on Caribbean reefs. Removal of large
predators on land and in water often sets off trophic cascades with
unpredicted major effects. Because of hysteresis effects in phase shifts,
the vulnerability to damage may not be apparent until the phase shift has
happened, and trying to reverse the phase shift may be difficult or next to
impossible due to the hysteresis. Is it wise for most most coral reefs
around the world to be missing their large fish and half or more of their
fish biomass??
For more information, see:
Fenner, D. 2009. The largest reef fish species were gone most places in
the world even before scientists knew about it.
http://www.sharksavers.org/en/education/sharks-are-in-trouble/399-loss-of-large-fish-on-coral-reefs.html
or
http://www.coralscience.org/main/articles/climate-a-ecology-15/decline-large-coral-fish
Douglas Fenner
American Samoa
More information about the Coral-List
mailing list