Dawit Tesfamichael Daniel Pauly Editors the Red Sea Ecosystem and Fisheries Coral Reefs of the World
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Coral Reefs of the World 7 Dawit Tesfamichael Daniel Pauly Editors The Red Sea Ecosystem and Fisheries Coral Reefs of the World Volume 7 Series editors Bernhard Riegl , Dania Beach , Florida, USA Richard E. Dodge , Dania , Florida, USA More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7539 Dawit Tesfamichael • Daniel Pauly Editors The Red Sea Ecosystem and Fisheries Editors Dawit Tesfamichael Daniel Pauly Fisheries Centre Fisheries Centre University of British Columbia University of British Columbia Vancouver , BC , Canada Vancouver , BC , Canada Department of Marine Sciences University of Asmara Asmara , Eritrea Additional material to this book can be downloaded from http://extras.springer.com . ISSN 2213-719X ISSN 2213-7203 (electronic) Coral Reefs of the World ISBN 978-94-017-7433-8 ISBN 978-94-017-7435-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7435-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015959486 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Dordrecht is part of Springer Science+Business Media ( www.springer.com ) F o r e w o r d In the summer of 1984, after nearly a month spent at sea surveying reefs of the Saudi Arabian coast, a tiny wooden boat pulled up beside our sailing catamaran. The three men on board, Egyptians on a long excursion from their home port in the Gulf of Suez, had come to barter lobsters for freshwater. Several things made the encounter memorable. They had no shelter, limited provisions and were far from land in a rickety and barely seaworthy vessel. But they seemed perfectly at ease and left with broad smiles and laughter as we waved them off four lobsters lighter and a jerrycan of water heavier. The other noteworthy thing was that they were the fi rst fi shermen we had seen in weeks. Despite their great richness and abundance of life, the Red Sea reefs we dived seemed scarcely to have been touched by fi shing. Here and there we came across the remains of seasonal fi shing camps on offshore islands or would see a wiry fi gure standing at the reef edge with hook and line. But there was little in the way of commercial fi shing outside a handful of ports, most of them in the southern Red Sea. Tallying the counts of sharks and turtles our team made at hundreds of sites along the length of Saudi Arabia’s coast, I was able to detect a weak signal of fi shing in reduced abundance near coastal towns. But for the most part, the reefs were intact, brimming full of heavy-bodied groupers and toothsome snappers and emperors. I didn’t know it then, but others had their sights on these fi sh at the time. Fisheries develop- ment offi cers from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, United Nations Development Program and others were busy persuading governments of the region to invest more in fi shing. They saw the Red Sea as an untapped source of fi sheries wealth, and reading their reports now there is the sense that fi sh left in the water were seen as a fl agrant waste of opportunity; people in Red Sea nations were sitting around a blue gold mine, they argued. So ventures were estab- lished to right this wrong, ports developed, engines added to boats and trawlers brought in. Some fi sheries prospered, while others were rapidly expanded only to expire shortly after, like that for sharks along the Egyptian coast. Few have since lived up to the expectations of their proponents. The Red Sea may be rich, but it turns out not to be very productive, which makes it diffi cult to balance profi t with long-term sustainability. This timely book reconstructs the history of fi shing in the Red Sea from the mid-twentieth century to the present. It takes us from the benign neglect of low-impact artisanal fi shing, through an era of fi sheries expansion and intensifi cation in what could be called the optimistic 1960s and 1970s, to the present era of declining landings despite sustained fi shing effort. Throughout this half century of time, there has been little in the way of management or control of fi shing, which bodes ill for their long-term prosperity. The nature of Red Sea fi sheries is still changing, with countries like Saudi Arabia bringing in South-East Asians to man their fi sheries, unwittingly introducing destructive fi shing prac- tices with them. In other places, migrant construction workers fi sh to supplement their incomes leading to intensive exploitation along the shoreline. In Egypt tourism has sup- planted commercial fi shing, and stocks are in good health, while confl ict has kept nations like Sudan from developing their fi sheries. This book documents this diversity of fi shing history v vi Foreword in unprecedented detail, country by country, bringing a grand and much-needed perspective to a hitherto little-known region. It concludes there is much to be gained from good manage- ment of the Red Sea’s fragile and valuable resources and much to be lost if such management is not introduced. Marine Conservation Callum Roberts York, UK Preface and Ac knowledgements The Red Sea is one of the hotspots for coral reef ecology. The unique physical and biological characteristics of the Red Sea enabled it to host reef communities characterized by high rates of endemism for its diverse groups and the northernmost coral reefs in the world. However, there are many anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystems of the Red Sea, as it is a major ship- ping route, and its coasts are becoming lined with resorts, harbours and urban developments. Still, the most direct human impact of humans with the Red Sea ecosystems is fi shing. Fishers’ experience of the sea, knowledge and traditions depend on and are informed, more than any- thing else, by their interaction with the ecosystem through fi shing. Hence, examining the fi sh- eries of the Red Sea becomes important to understand this ecosystem. The seeds of this book were planted early during the PhD program of Dawit Tesfamichael, who, under the supervision of Professors Daniel Pauly and Tony J. Pitcher, started building an ecosystem model (presented here as Chap. 9 ) in order to understand the dynamics of the Red Sea ecosystem and the impacts of fi sheries thereon. One of the required inputs to this model were long time series of catches, which were initially assumed to be straightforwardly avail- able. Reality stepped in, however: not only did the countries bordering the Red Sea lack many of the required long time series of fi shery statistics, but also what little there was not reliable. This also applied to the fi shery statistics disseminated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on behalf of the countries bordering the Red Sea countries, which lacked data for the small-scale fi sheries and for discards, as well as details on catch composition, and which did not account for the differences between domestic and foreign catches. Thus, the catches of Red Sea fi sheries had to be ‘reconstructed by countries, sectors and species (groups) composition’. (Re)estimating catches, without which fi sheries research cannot be done, was going back to the basics of the discipline. This, however, usually does not get enough emphasis. This is changing now, due to an initiative taken by the Sea Around Us at the University of British Columbia, to establish better fi shery statistics in the world, of which this book is one of many products. Reconstructing the catches of the Red Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) from 1950 to 2010 demanded the collaboration of local fi sheries administrations and research personnel from the countries bordering the Red Sea. The main collaborators are included as co-authors, the reason why this book is edited rather than authored by us. However, many more persons than our co-authors need to be acknowledged here. Notably, we are very grateful for the sup- port and cooperation we received from the fi sheries administration of the Red Sea countries; without their involvement and their willingness to share their data, this work would not have been possible. Dawit Tesfamichael also received the help of fi shers and managers who shared their knowledge and expertise during fi eld interviews in Eritrea, Sudan and Yemen, and he thanks them for their time and insights. There are several individuals in each country that should be acknowledged individually. However, as their contributions were country specifi c, we have opted to thank them in each country’s chapter.