A New Year’s wish for marine protection in Tobago

Anjani Ganase considers “no take” regulations for our marine protected areas, and makes a wish for a more eco-prosperous marine Tobago in 2025.

This is a story about two marine areas, Buccoo Reef Marine Park, Tobago, and Crop Marine Reserve, New Zealand.

Buccoo Reef Marine Park is seven square kilometres off southwest Tobago composed of coral reefs, seagrasses, mangroves. The Cape Rodney to Okakari Point (Crop) Marine Reserve is in New Zealand, a five kilometres stretch of coast with four square kilometres of marine space north of Auckland.

Both areas were designated marine protected areas in the 1970s: Crop Marine Reserve in 1971 and Buccoo in 1973.

Both areas are regularly visited for sun, sea, swim and snorkel activity. However, the marine reserve in New Zealand was declared a “no take” zone and protected from all forms of fishing. Fifty years later each area tells very different stories.

The Crop marine reserve – also known as Goat Island – boasts success in not just restoring fish stocks in the area but recovery of marine habitat that they didn’t know was there. The recovery of the fish populations revealed how fishing practices had damaged the marine substrate. No fishing/harvesting in the area led to the restoration of a collapsed food web.

Even though there was resistance to the marine protection by members of the local community, these same members have been won over by the rich spill over of fish and lobster populations into the surrounding areas that boosted the fishing economy. The repopulation of stocks happened rapidly, more quickly than expected by local scientists.

The bounty of no take

Tourism has sky rocketed in the area, where local tourists are able to swim, go diving, tour on glass bottom boats and have a better understanding of how marine life functions when it is not disturbed by human culling. The tourism for this small space brings in US$4.5 million annually with a cost of just US$40,000 to regulate the area for full protection, mainly for employing park rangers and their equipment. This model has become such a success, that other coastal towns have established their own community controlled marine reserves for similar socio-economic benefit.

There was no difference in the fish stocks (or scarcity) in areas where regulated fishing was permitted, compared with areas without protection. It turns out to be cheaper and less complicated to manage a marine reserve for “no take” than for regulated fishing. The outcome for fisheries outside the no take zone is beneficial and bountiful. The Crop Marine Reserve is an example of successful no take marine protection that is not remote and does not require a lot of regulation, especially given the benefits.

Compared to Crop, the story of Buccoo is one of exploitation and “turning a blind eye” to unregulated activity (such as jetskis and poaching). Fifty years since it was designated, Buccoo Reef Marine Park enjoys no effective management or enforcement of regulations for protection in the park. Tourism in Buccoo has shifted away from eco-visits and research to a place for partying, with little regard for the marine life in the area. Climate change is pushing these sensitive habitats to the brink. Critically endangered species are at risk of local extinction within the park.

Managing our marine space

The story of the Crop Marine Reserve, however, provides hope for the possibility of reversing the impacts. We can restore an important marine habitat with full protection against fishing. We can manage and provide employment for park rangers. We can manage and control the flow of land based pollution. The concept of no take in relatively small restricted areas should be easily achieved. All it requires is the will, since it is something that is already implemented in the local marine environment. The oil and gas sector limits boat traffic around oil rigs for health and safety reasons and because of this fisherfolk have realised that fishing just beyond the barriers results in big catches. The same concept applies to the Buccoo Reef Marine Park, and all nearshore marine ecosystems around Tobago.

The benefits of large marine reserves have been proven by the scientists that study them and the surrounding communities that utilise the areas. The example from New Zealand can also be found in the Caribbean, mostly in Belize, but also Puerto Rico, Bahamas and even St Lucia, where no take marine reserves boost artisanal fish capture in the surrounding areas by 90 per cent (Robert et al 2001).

My new year’s wish is for Tobago to challenge the misconception that marine protection denies the fisherman his livelihood. Let us change the trajectory of our designated marine protected areas. Let’s change our tourism and rival the small communities and marine reserves in other parts of the world.