News release

From: PNAS

Rebuilding coral reefs to enhance food security

Restoring coral reef fisheries could sustainably improve food security in tropical developing regions, according to a study. Coral reef fish represent a potential source of food, nutrients, and income for millions of people living in regions with compromised food security. However, fish biomass on coral reefs is often well below levels needed to support maximum sustainable production. Jessica Zamborain-Mason and colleagues quantified the potential yield and food provisioning benefits of restoring multispecies fisheries on 1,211 coral reefs in 23 jurisdictions around the world. The analysis suggests that rebuilding coral reef fish populations to their maximum production levels could increase sustainable yields by nearly 50%. For individual jurisdictions, the estimated increases in yields would represent between 20,000 and 162 million additional servings of sustainably produced reef fish per year. The additional food produced in a given jurisdiction could meet the recommended seafood intake to support cardiovascular health for up to 1.4 million additional people per year. Median recovery timeframes to achieve projected benefits ranged from 6.4 years under a fishing moratorium to 49.7 years under the maximum harvesting scenario still allowing for recovery. According to the authors, many regions with the greatest potential gains in yield and food provisioning also have high food and micronutrient deficiencies, highlighting the potential benefits of rebuilding reef assemblages to maximizing sustainable production.