Boosting coral reef fish populations through sustainable management could provide enough seafood for millions of people every year, a new study has found, contributing significantly to global food security.
The World Bank has recognised World Food Programme figures that indicated in 2023 that 349 million people across 79 countries were acutely food insecure. Since then, poverty and food insecurity have worsened due to supply chain problems, climate change, financial uncertainty, and wars such as in Ukraine and Gaza. Food inflation, the World Bank says, remains high, “with dozens of countries experiencing double-digit inflation.”
But it’s a situation that could be improved with the help of well looked-after coral reefs. A team of scientists at Panama’s Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and elsewhere says that coral reefs around the world could increase global sustainable fishing yields by 50%, matching 226-gram-per-week seafood intake recommendations for up to 1.4 million additional people a year.
The research shows that recovering fish stocks on coral reefs can significantly increase the number of sustainable fish servings produced per year, “particularly for countries with high malnutrition.” What’s more, “locations with the greatest potential for sustainable gains in yield are among those with the greatest food and micronutrient deficiencies, underscoring both the challenges and opportunities” at stake, the paper explains. And it’s not only food that healthy coral reefs can provide, but also “income, and livelihoods.”
The scientists studied 1,211 individual reef sites and 23 jurisdictions around the world identified as being below maximum sustainable production levels. They found that reefs have the potential to provide individual jurisdictions with between 20,000 and a whopping 162 million additional sustainable servings of reef fish per year.
Many coral reefs’ fish stocks are depleted below the level at which sustainable production is maximized, the study says. To turn the problem around, fish stocks need to double their “standing biomass” (a measure of the total mass of living organisms within a specific area at a particular moment in time).
Under the strictest fishing ban, the recovery could take place in under seven years, but the study acknowledges the challenge of finding different ways for those working in coral fisheries different ways to earn a living. Sustainable coral reef tourism could be one avenue to explore. The Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) has even found that limits on visitors could protect coral ecosystems without harming tourism, and may be beneficial to the travel industry over the long term.
Alternatively, if humans keep fishing as much as possible while still letting fish populations recover, it might take as long as 50 years before the number of fish grows enough to provide the extra food that scientists expect.
