CORAL REEF COMMUNITIES
The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MAR) extends from the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula to the Islas de la Bahía in Honduras. It is considered to be the second-largest barrier reef system in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and it is on the doorstep of Akumal.
The MAR is a significant ecosystem—not just for its size and diversity of corals and species, but it contributes to the stability and protection of the coastline and functions as a feeding nursery and reproduction site for mammals, reptiles, fish and invertebrates. The MAR is also of great socioeconomic importance, providing jobs and a source of income to people living in adjacent coastal communities.
Our Projects
CORAL REEF MONITORING
Our Purpose
To promote the protection and conservation of the coral reef communities by monitoring the changes over time to further suggest management policies.
Our Work
Reef Monitoring
We focus on studying the condition of the coral reefs over time, in order to describe changes in its structure and functions, its biodiversity, the responses of the reef communities to stressors and the effects upon them, such as diseases, bleaching, mortality, algae expansion and key fish abundance decrease, all which impact the ecological integrity of coral reefs.
Our monitoring consists of gathering information on a permanent basis. With all of these elements we are able to determine the historic and current health of the reef in several survey sites including patch reef, reef crest and fore reef habitats in Akumal.
Seagrass Monitoring
Much like the monitoring we do for reefs, we also study the relationship between seagrass and marine turtles, its relative abundance (and changes over time) and the human and environmental factors that may affect the health of the three species of seagrass in this area.
CORAL REEF RESTORATION
Our Purpose
The general objective of the project is to restore the reef ecosystem functions and services in the Akumal Fish Refuge. By focusing on rehabilitation, establishing and maintaining coral nurseries of opportunity fragments (rescued from the sea floor and obtained from donor colonies), we are working to replenish the reef habitat with Acropora palmata and Acropora cervicornis, among other coral species, which are main reef builders in Akumal.
Our Work
Given the importance of the biological diversity and its integral part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the coral reef in Akumal has experienced a gradual but significant ecosystem degradation in the last decade, mainly because of the lack of appropriate development plans and resource management. In addition to the impact of global warming, which promotes the formation of storms and hurricanes, which afflict the Caribbean region with increasing power and frequency, coral reefs face also many anthropogenic threats.
Since 2013, CEA has documented the rapid die-off of A. cervicornis (staghorn coral) colonies and responded to the wide-spread loss by creating a restoration project.
CORAL NURSERIES
Corals can grow and reproduce asexually through a process called fragmentation. If a branch of coral is broken and falls onto the reef, it can re-attach and begin to grow a new colony. We have developed a way to mimic this natural process which allows us to grow large numbers of corals.
Our team collects “opportunity fragments” (corals that have been broken and are scattered on the seafloor or pieces that can be clipped from “donor” colonies), and hang the fragments on our coral lines (much like an underwater clothes line) where they stabilize and continue to grow. During this time, the corals in the nursery are maintained to avoid any algae overgrowth, which could potentially kill them (Figure. 1).
Currently, in Akumal (and surrounding area) we have a total of seven nurseries: five of Acropora cervicornis and one of Acropora palmata. Each one houses up to hundred fragments at a given time.
CORAL OUTPLANTING
Acropora cervicornis Fore Reef
Once the coral fragments stabilizing in the coral lines are large enough, there are clipped again into small fragments and outplanted for restoration. The fragments are attached directly to the reef structure by the use of different techniques.
CORAL OUTPLANTING
Acropora palmata Reef Crest
By attaching small coral fragments (micro-fragmentation technique) directly into the reef structure or onto artificial structures, we seek for a multi-species restoration in order to maintain the coral biodiversity and gain back the ecological functions that the reef has lost as a result of the massive degradation brought by the white syndrome disease and the coral bleaching in the last years.
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NEWS + UPDATES
Reef Health of the MAR
The Healthy Reef Initiative has released their 2018 report card of the MAR.
REPORTS + PUBLICATIONS
Rapid tourism growth and declining coral reefs in Akumal, Mexico
as featured in Marine Biology
October 2015
FROM THE FIELD
Latest underwater video made by one of our volunteers, Brett Mello.
Our Gallery
Volunteers survey and evaluate the local reef in Akumal.
A volunteer takes notes from a seagrass survey in Akumal Bay.
Also known as Lettuce Coral, it provides shelter to juvenile fish.
Thallassia testudinum is one of seagrasses that the turtles of Akumal feed upon.
Also known as "Brain coral". It is a common species in Akumal reefs.
Crinoid, an equinoderm also known as "feathered sea star".
Every other week, the coral fragments are maintained to avoid any algae overgrowth, by brushing the algae that grows on the PVC structures or over the coral, in order to reduce the mortality rate.
Since 2013 we have outplanted up to 6,000 corals onto the reefs in Akumal.
In collaboration with the local diveshops and our volunteers, we monitor the condition of the outplanted corals. We also have the technical support of the National Fisheries Institute (INAPESCA) and other Federal agencies regarding environmental, conservation and legal affairs (SEMARNAT; CONANP, PROFEPA, DGVS).
In order to expand this project in scale and technical procedures, CEA is working in a new project under the counselling of INAPESCA (National Institute of Fisheries Studies, Regional Fisheries Centre located in Puerto Morelos), from whom we are receiving technical advisory in new restoration techniques.