Friday, November 1, 2024

Study: Spearfishing Restrictions Boosted Fish Stocks In Great Barrier Reef

-

While spearfishing can be an ecologically sustainable activity with minimal bycatch, restricting the activity via designated spearing-free management zones can have conservation benefits at a regional scale, Australian scientists have found.

Restricting spearfishing in some “yellow zones” in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has doubled the abundance of coral trout, according to new research led by James Cook University scientists.

The study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, focused on reefs around the Capricorn Bunkers, offshore from Gladstone, looking at the abundance of targeted fish species in partially protected Marine Park Zones known as “yellow zones.”

Researchers compared yellow zones that allow spearfishing to “special management area” yellow zones that prohibit spearfishing.

According to JCU scientist Dr. April Hall:

“What we found was in yellow zones that excluded spearfishing, the numbers of target species such as coral trout were significantly higher compared to fishing zones that allow spearfishing.

“These restricted yellow zones also rivalled the abundance in nearby protected no-take green zones.

“Regardless of the effects of spearfishing, both kinds of yellow zones still support a greater abundance of coral trout compared to nearby blue zones, where fishing is less restricted.”

Hall said while this study showed the conservation benefits of prohibiting spearfishing, it’s not necessarily the case across the entire Great Barrier Reef.

“We’ve compared other yellow zones in different parts of the Great Barrier Reef and the outcome varies, most likely due to differences in the popularity of spearfishing.”

Check out the study here.

 

John Liang
John Lianghttps://www.deeperblue.com/
John Liang is the News Editor at DeeperBlue.com. He first got the diving bug while in High School in Cairo, Egypt, where he earned his PADI Open Water Diver certification in the Red Sea off the Sinai Peninsula. Since then, John has dived in a volcanic lake in Guatemala, among white-tipped sharks off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, and other places including a pool in Las Vegas helping to break the world record for the largest underwater press conference.

SEARCH

CONNECT WITH US

858,282FansLike
112,192FollowersFollow
2,738FollowersFollow
22,801FollowersFollow
13,177FollowersFollow
25,921FollowersFollow
2,531SubscribersSubscribe

RECENT ARTICLES