When lockdown forced us away from coral reefs, more fish took our place

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-11-09 11:01

Australia; Pacific; VIC; QLD

william.e.feeney@gmail.com

Popular coral reefs at Moorea, French Polynesia saw an increase in fish visitors during COVID-19 lockdown, according to Australian, French Polynesian and international researchers. During French Polynesia's six-week lockdown early in the pandemic, no tourists were allowed to visit Moorea and locals were unable to use the reef for recreation. Researchers who conducted fish surveys before, during and after the lockdown period say the density of fish in the area increased as human activity declined, and then decreased again when more humans returned to the reef.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

COVID-19 lockdown highlights impact of recreational activities on the behaviour of coral reef fishes

Royal Society Open Science

COVID-19 lockdowns provided an opportunity to observe how nature responded to our absence. Here, we found that heavily visited coral reefs at Moorea, French Polynesia, became recolonized by fishes following humans leaving the area, but that fish numbers decreased again when we returned.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Griffith University, Deakin University

Funder: This work was supported by several grants: French Polynesia government (DRM & DIREN), Fondation de France (grant no. 2019-08602), LabEx CORAIL (project 2018 Emul), ANR-19-CE34-0006-Manini, ANR-19-CE14- 0010-SENSO, the Rāhui Forum and Resource Center supported by Bloomberg’s Philanthropy, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.