South-east Asia's unique coral reefs are under serious threat from pollution and over-fishing
Lim Tse Yang, Straits Times 30 May 09;
WE ARE cooking up trouble in paradise.
The live seafood trade, driven by growing demand in an increasingly affluent China, poses the latest of many threats to South-east Asia's coral reefs.
These reefs are the most diverse, productive and beautiful ecosystems in the world, and they desperately need help.
Improved regulation and education are the keys to saving them before it is too late.
The reefs of the region have long been under threat from all sides.
Pollution from a growing coastal population is degrading them.
Increased carbon dioxide levels are making the waters inhospitably warm and acidic, bleaching and dissolving corals.
And now fishermen threaten to eliminate the fish that hold the whole reef ecosystem together.
Without immediate regulatory action, these magnificent natural wonders will be irrevocably lost.
Consider the Wakatobi Marine National Park off Sulawesi in Indonesia.
The park is home to sun- drenched beaches and sapphire waters, and some of the world's most spectacular reefs.
In a month of surveying reefs there last year, however, I saw not a single grouper larger than 20cm.
Grouper can grow to between 60cm and 2.5m; the largest one I surveyed was reproductively equivalent to a human seven- year-old.
Anything larger had been caught by local fishermen, destined for a dinner plate - and the local grouper populations had been all but extinguished.
Their loss is a harbinger of the total collapse of the reef ecosystems towards which we are hurtling at breakneck speed.
What exactly will we be losing if the South-east Asian reefs collapse? More biodiversity than the entire Amazon rainforest holds.
The region's Coral Triangle has the most concentrated biodiversity in the world, with about 10 times more species than Caribbean reefs. We would also lose what may be the most important source of natural medicines in the 21st century.
Coral skeletons are already being used as human bone grafts, and about 1,000 reef species are tested annually by the United States National Cancer Institute for potential cancer treatments.
All this diversity and potential may well be lost within 20 years.
Interestingly, much of the Coral Triangle is already officially protected.
The problem lies in an utter lack of effective enforcement.
Professor Chou Loke Ming, an expert on marine conservation at the National University of Singapore, has pointed out how in parts of Indonesia, one locally employed ranger, in one dinghy with an outboard, often has to patrol vast swathes of ocean alone - if he patrols at all.
With so little logistical support for rangers on the ground, illegal fishermen often have free rein to do as they please - just as illegal loggers did in 1997 when they burnt huge tracts of Indonesian jungle, blanketing the region in a miasma of haze for months.
Even where the resources to enforce regulations are available, the rampant corruption endemic to much of South-east Asia poses additional difficulties.
To make matters worse, recent research has shown that even mild fishing pressure can dramatically alter the structure of reef ecosystems.
Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States studied the Northern Line islands in the central Pacific, which include some of the last remaining pristine reefs in the world.
Reefs fished by islanders had drastically different fish communities, and were far less healthy.
These reefs support a mere 2,000 to 5,000 people each.
Sulawesi alone has a population of more than 16 million people.
At such numbers, even the subsistence-level fishing permitted in most of the region's protected areas may prove too much for reefs to withstand.
Stopping locals from fishing for a living will require education and monitoring. But more importantly, a viable alternative livelihood is needed.
While nature tourism has its own problems, it is an obvious option, currently generating over US$1 billion (S$1.45 billion) a year.
Developing this valuable and potentially sustainable use of the reef is insufficient, though.
Consider the case of the Maldives, a chain of atolls in the Indian Ocean, where shark-diving tourism makes each live grey reef shark worth about US$60,000 over its 18-year lifespan.
In contrast, a shark's fins sold for consumption brings a fisherman a mere US$32. Yet shark finning is still rampant.
Market demand and problems of wealth distribution perpetuate this problem in the Maldives, as they do in South-east Asia.
We need to bring a combination of international support and pressure to bear on all parties involved, and quickly.
China, the largest market for live seafood, is notoriously recalcitrant about environmental regulation. Among other things, China regularly misreports its fisheries production statistics, and also remains a hub of illegal trade in endangered species.
It will take effort to implement tight controls on the import, often illegal, of exotic reef fish species such as grouper.
Similar effort is needed to establish effective monitoring and regulation to make protected areas in the Coral Triangle more than just lines on a map.
For the sake of the reefs and for ourselves, we must act.
Singapore, a major regional consumer and distributor of seafood, and a gateway for tourists to South-east Asia, is strongly positioned to take the lead in this.
Individuals can also play their part.
For starters, reducing our own consumption of unsustainable or live seafood would be an easy and crucial first step towards safeguarding our oceans - before we lose our last traces of paradise.
The writer is a student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University
