Article: Overfishing harming Honduran reefs

[Google translation] Overfishing is the ‘titanic challenge’ in which Honduras must concentrate ‘more efforts’ to recover and ensure the health of its corals, national scientists and conservationists warned, during the presentation of the report ‘Mesoamerican Reef Health’ in Tegucigalpa.

After two years of research, the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI) revealed the results of its monitoring to 73 coral sites in the northern and insular regions of the country.

Ian Drysdale, coordinator of this international scientific organization in Honduras, explained that the objects of study were the live coral cover per square meter, the amount of algae and the biomass (quantity and size) of the fish. This methodology is known as the Reef Health Index (ISA).

Overfishing significantly affected the ISA of Honduras will fall from the highest in the regional rating according to the 2018 report, from “regular to bad” (3.0 to 2.5), and “it is the first time a country has fallen”, ensures the same report and the scientist based in Roatán, Bay Islands.

- La Tribuna (Spanish)