The vulnerability of reef fishes to exploitation

Abstract

Reef fisheries are of considerable socioeconomic importance globally. Per ton of fish caught, they are more efficient and provide more livelihoods than industrial-scale fisheries while involving less wastage of food resources and use of fuel. Currently, however, their worth is not fully recognized and they are rarely monitored or managed to ensure long-term persistence. Moreover, a number of commercially important reef fish species may be particularly vulnerable to fishing pressure because of their life history characteristics. These include, long-life and late sexual maturation as well as complexities of social and mating systems that have arisen as a result of a long and close evolutionary association with the reef habitat. Such characteristics also mean that they are disrupted readily by fishing and negatively affected by loss of habitat.