Coral trout hooked on fishing ban
Coral trout numbers on the Great Barrier Reef have bounced back in areas where fishing is banned, a new study shows.
Writing in today's Current Biology journal, researchers from James Cook University (JCU) and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), say their study shows no-take marine reserves, in which fishing is completely banned, are effective in protecting exploited species.
Study author Professor Garry Russ, from the School of Marine and Tropical Biology at JCU, says the numbers of coral trout, a favoured target of commercial and recreational fisheries, bounced back in no-take reserves within two years or less of the area being rezoned.
On 1 July 2004 the Australian Government threw a protective net over the Great Barrier Reef by banning fishing in about a third of the marine park.
Worth the controversy
The move, which locked fishermen out of 100,000 square kilometres of the reef, created intense community debate with the Government offering compensation packages to those affected by the ban.
Russ says his study shows the controversial move was worth the pain.
He says the team has documented increases in coral trout density between 31% and 68% in two years or less.
"The big surprise was that we detected a consistent, rapid increase in multiple large reserves spread over 1000 kilometres offshore and 700 kilometres inshore," he says.
The team used an underwater visual census survey to monitor numbers in the new coral reef reserves and in control areas that remained open to fishing before the ban took effect and one and a half to two years after rezoning.
They found that coral trout numbers were significantly higher in no-take reserves than in sites that remained open to fishing in four of five offshore regions and two of three inshore regions.
Russ says the figures are probably due to a decrease in fishing mortality inside the new reserves rather than an increase in fishing outside.
"Our results provide an encouraging message that bold political steps to protect biodiversity can produce rapid, positive results for exploited species at ecosystem scales," Russ says.
"It is an important lesson for the entire world."