A study of East African coral reefs has uncovered an unfolding calamity for the region: plummeting fish populations due to overfishing, which in turn could produce widespread food insecurity.

While many conservation plans focus on only environmental indicators for success, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)’s coral reef program is trying a relatively new approach: focusing on both social and ecological processes and outcomes to ensure a long-term future for coral reef systems, according to a newly published study.

As conservationists grapple with unprecedented levels of coral reef bleaching in the world’s warming oceans, scientists in the Indian and Pacific Oceans used the most recent El Nino of 2016 (the warmest year on record) to evaluate the role of excess heat as the leading driver of coral bleaching.

The following congratulatory statement was released by Dr. John Robinson, WCS’s Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science:

he largest study ever conducted of its kind has identified where and how to save coral reef communities in the Indo-Pacific, according to an international group of scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other conservation NGOs, government agencies, and universities. The study outlines three viable strategies that can be quickly enacted to help save coral reefs that are threatened by climate change and human impacts.  

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Malaysia Program (WCS Malaysia) lauds the Sarawak Government for gazetting Luconia Shoals as a marine national park effective 18 October last year and formally published in the Sarawak Gazette on 17 January 2019. Located in the South China Sea over the Sunda Continental Shelf in the Malaysian Exclusive Economic Zone, Luconia Shoals is the largest marine national park in the country at over 1 million hectares.

Marine scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups examining the ecological status of coral reefs across the Indian and Pacific oceans have uncovered an unsettling fact: even the best coral reef marine parks contain less than half of the fish biomass found in the most remote reefs that lie far from human settlements.

WCS President and CEO Dr. Cristián Samper issued the following statement on the announcement of $185 million in new support from Michael Bloomberg and Ray Dalio’s OceanX to increase ocean exploration and protection at the Our Ocean Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

WCS will have marine conservation experts on the ground at OOC18, taking place in Bali, Indonesia on October 29th and 30th, to join with other conservation organizations, government delegates, and businesses in pledging new commitments for ocean conservation and discussing progress on previously made commitments. For more information on the event, click here.

Researchers from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa), WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), and other groups are discovering how forest conservation in Fiji can minimize the impact of human activities on coral reefs and their fish populations.