Bubbles from the Naturalist Jerry's tank - by Jerry Ligon

Sustainable Tourism and Knowledgeable Choices When We Order Fish

It has become obvious to me that fish species that we eat in our favorite Caribbean restaurants has a lot to do with the populations of fish on our local coral reefs and that only through education can the visiting tourist learn to lessen his impact on local fish resources. No one visiting our Caribbean Sea wants to be known as the BozoTourist, the one that knows very little about the ecology of the coral reefs and its amazing creature populations. That type of tourist has more negative impact on our local ecosystems than almost any other factor, mainly because it is driven by economics, which has a bad reputation as a guardian of our dealings with our planet. Put the two negatives together, the Bozo Tourist and economics and catastrophe is not far behind.

Let me explain: On the Yorktown Clipper, a small, 110 passenger explorertype cruise ship, we visited the chain of islands known as St Vincent and the
Grenadines. On one particular island, Bequia, I noted the many fish traps , each marked on the surface by empty Clorox bottles. Local fishermen owned particular traps and their duties included emptying them periodically of the catch of fish and selling it to the local restaurants, as well as re-baiting the traps when needed. They usually used animal hides as a long-lasting bait in the traps. But because of this, algae built up in great
masses inside the traps and the surrounding populations of algae eating species were particularly vulnerable to getting caught, such as members of Surgeonfish, Parrotfish, Damselfish families, which naturally eat algae. I could easily compare the diversity of fish on this island with other Caribbean islands that we visited. In summary, the reefs were in awful shape, and obvious overpopulation of algae was having crucial negative effects. The water clarity was awful, the green color of healthy coral was replaced by the browns of dead coral that had been overtaken by an abundance of algae.

Fish traps on this island were legal, and that was fifteen years ago, and I wonder if it is still legal. The problem with the Bozo Tourist is that on the menus in the restaurants, fish were mislabeled as “greenfish”, or “bluefish” rather than stoplight parrotfish or blue tang. Asking your waiter would not improve your education on locally available fish that occurred on menus. They would not know exactly what the fish species was except it is very good tasting. This meant that the gullible tourist would initially try an item on the menu, and find it delicious, making it easier next time when a
choice had to be made. The Bozo Tourist was hooked, if you can pardon by pun. The tourist pushes the market for fish served in the restaurants and this keeps the fishermen happy as well as the local economy, yet I questioned whether the reefs were happy? I do know that the algae bloom showed that the algae were quite happy with this arrangement.

After that summer in 1994 as a naturalist on board the Yorktown Clipper, I visited Bonaire as part of our scheduled itinerary. It was at the end of my contract with the cruise ship. Perhaps because of the obvious differences that I saw here on the reefs compared with the islands that we visited, I decided to move here. If I hadn't seen how bad reef conditions could be that are under human control, and the drastic differences with Bonaire's reefs, I might not have ever put two and two together, and I might have gone back to my beloved Colorado.

So what fish do I order in my favorite Bonaire restaurants? I obviously will only order fish species that I am 100% positive is from a sustainable population. I will not visit a restaurant in which I do not know and trust the waiter, because I'm going to ask him questions about the “Catch of the Day”. For example, what kind of grouper. Red grouper is hand-lined at depths off the west side of Klein that exceed 500 feet. I see the small fishing boats anchored out there, and I have seen them bring their catch to the restaurants and the Red Groupers are easy to recognize as are Red Snapper, also caught at depths- their eyes have popped out of the eye sockets because the fishermen bring them up so rapidly from great depths that pressure equalizations are not maintained and the expanding air spaces behind the eyes actually burst. Quite gory, but direct evidence
as to where they were caught.

I will not ever eat “grouper” even if it is the only species of fish on the menu that particular day, because there is a good chance that some fisherman has spear-fished, or snorkel-fished a local shallow water Tiger Grouper or one of the other larger grouper species that we see and census when we do fish surveys for the organization REEF. If the economic conditions force fishermen to fish illegally, then they go after the largest fish. The fishermen do not know it but they are targeting the largest fish of the groupers which invariably are males. When grouper spawning full moons come around during the winter months, there is a preponderance of smaller, females and not enough males for sustainable populations. The illegal fishing can take place at night and no one is the wiser, except the fish surveyor. If we use the data that we fish surveyors have been contributing to REEF for the past fifteen years, and if we look at the survey results of the Expert fish surveyor, you will notice that the sighting frequency of Tiger Grouper has steadily gone down:

Expert Sighting Freq %

I have chosen 3 time periods, the first in which the Tiger Grouper was listed asthe 37th most common fish on Bonaire surveys was from 1993 to 1998.

The second time period, when the Tiger Grouper slipped from 37th overall to 58th place was from 1998 to 2003, and the third time period , from 2003 to 2008, and you see that Tiger Grouper has now dropped to 84th place. Also the Expert Sighting Frequency for Tiger Grouper started out at 63.8 % and currently is only 40% as sighted on surveys turned in by the Expert fish surveyors. Something is going on here. We are losing our Tiger Groupers and illegal fishing by spear-gun, or the legal method (but notsustainable) of snorkel-fishing may be one reason, and it may be driven by not being
choosy enough when ordering fish from our local restaurants.

If I were to go to Ramon, Marine Park Manager, as a concerned diver and tell him that I think that the number of Tiger Groupers are much lower now than when I first started diving on Bonaire, fifteen years ago, the wise and knowledgeable Ramon, would be courteous and thank me, but not put too much faith in my remark because it is Subjective Data. However, if I approach Ramon with data that I have just explained, he would take immediate notice, because such data is Objective Data, and based on scientific protocol.

What species on Bonaire would I order? Wahoo and Dorado are caught in the deep blue and rarely if ever are seen over the reef, so any fish that is caught by line, except snorkel-fishing is a sustainable fishery, because there is no selection process where only the biggest fish of a species are caught.

But what about your conscience and your fish choice in the U. S.? Not much good going on .

A link to an article about the mislabeling of fish when purchased at fish markets in the eastern U. S. should also be read by the savvy tourist and can be found at http://www.sciencedaily.com/

I have put together some links so you can learn what species can be ordered and which should leave you feeling good about your fish consumption:
http://www.environmentaldefense.org/

http://www.blueocean.org.
Which is put together by Carl Safina, author of the most inspiring book that I have read since living on Bonaire for fifteen years, called Song for a Blue Ocean. He actually was a speaker on one of Bonaire's Dive Festivals.

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp Which is a good one from Monterey Bay Aquarium and lists your choices depending on the region of the U.S.. that you live in.