Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative releases 2018 Mesoamerican Reef Report Card

PRESS RELEASE – JANUARY 16th. 2018

A DECADE OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE CONSERVING OUR MESOAMERICAN REEF

The Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative (HRI) based in the Smithsonian Institution, released its 2018 Mesoamerican Reef Report Card last month.

Healthy Reefs Initiative 2018 Mesoamerican Reef Report Card

The report is based on a new study of 319 coral reef sites along 1000 km of the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, which were monitored for living coral cover, fleshy macroalgal cover, herbivorous fish biomass (parrot and surgeonfish) and commercially important fish biomass (snappers and groupers).

The 69 partner organizations in HRI are working together to successfully improve management and reef health. The 2018 Report Card records an improvement in reef health from ‘Poor’ in 2006 to ‘Fair’ this year, with increases in three of the four indicators over the decade.

In addition to documenting a number of major findings, the report describes County-specific findings and Calls to Action for Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.  Read the full version of the Press Release.

Access the Report Card here.