Net Fishing & Coral Reefs
- Coral reefs look like large rocks but are actually colonies of tiny animals living together like a single organism. The individual corals grow calcium carbonate skeletons, cementing to each other in a hard mass. When individuals die, their skeletons remain and new corals live on top of them, making the reef grow larger. Reefs can grow as much as 4 inches in a year and are found in many of the world's oceans, including the Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic and Indian oceans, and in Southeast Asian seas.
- About 70 percent of all coral reefs are threatened or have been destroyed by destructive fishing practices, over-harvesting of fish, pollution, shoreline development, disease and warmer ocean temperatures, according to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. Reef fish populations appear to be declining.
- Cyanide poison stuns reef fish so divers can capture them for aquarium sales. The poison often kills the coral polyps, preventing the reef from growing. Another method, blast fishing, kills unintended fish and shatters the reef itself. The Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations have banned cyanide and blast fishing but the practices continue.
- In the 1990s, the Haribon Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources and other groups began promoting the use of fine mesh nets in the Philippines as less damaging than cyanide and explosives. Divers chase fish into open-ended enclosures created with large mesh nets, then scoop up the fish they want with small "dip" nets. Regulatory agencies in a number of reef-fishing nations specify acceptable net types and how to use them.
- Over-fishing damages fish populations even if habitat-friendly methods are used. Solutions include no-fishing zones, catch quotas and aquaculture, or fish farming, industries. In the Philippines, aquaculture has increased fish product exports in recent years, according to Benjamin Tabios, assistant director for administrative services in the Philippines Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. "We want to retain our coral reef fishery biodiversity by reducing pressure on marine fisheries capture," Tabios said.
