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godzilla 24 September 2006 Coral Reefs, Discovery, Habitat 214 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Conservation International

Bird’s Head Seascape

Two recent expeditions led by Conservation International (CI) to the heart of Asia’s “Coral Triangle” discovered dozens of new species of marine life including epaulette sharks, “flasher” wrasse and reef-building coral, confirming the region as the Earth’s richest seascape. The unmatched marine biodiversity of the Bird’s Head Seascape, named for the shape of the distinctive peninsula on the northwestern end of Indonesia’s Papua province, includes more than 1,200 species of fish and almost 600 species of reef-building (scleractinian) coral, or 75 percent of the world’s known total.

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Threats from over-fishing with dynamite and cyanide, as well as deforestation and mining that degrade coastal waters, require immediate steps to protect the unique marine life that sustains local communities. The seascape’s central location in the Coral Triangle of the Pacific, which exports and maintains biodiversity in the entire Indo-Pacific marine realm, makes it one of the planet’s most urgent marine conservation priorities.

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The two Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) surveys earlier this year, along with a third expedition in 2001, studied waters surrounding Papua province from Teluk Cenderawasih in the north to the Raja Ampat archipelago off the western coast and southeast to the FakFak-Kaimana coastline. A few hundred kilometers inland are Papua’s Foja Mountains, where a team led by CI and the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) last year discovered a virtual “Lost World” of new species of birds, butterflies, frogs and other wildlife. Off the coast, researchers found more than 50 species of fish, coral and mantis shrimp previously unknown to science in the Bird’s Head Seascape that covers 18 million hectares, including 2,500 islands and submerged reefs. The seascape also includes the largest Pacific leatherback turtle nesting area in the world, and migratory populations of sperm and Bryde’s whales, orcas and several dolphin species.

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Only 11 percent of the seascape is currently protected, most of it in the Teluk Cenderawasih National Park that is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Indonesia (WWF-Indonesia). Results of the CI-led surveys highlight the need for a well-managed network of multiple-use Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to conserve the seascape’s biodiversity and ensure the long-term sustainability of commercial and subsistence fishing.

Check out the lovely nature here

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A Sea of Threats
While the coral reefs of the Bird’s Head Seascape remain in relatively good shape, there is widespread evidence of bomb-fishing – a practice used to stun fish that are collected for food, or as bait for the lucrative shark fin industry. “On several survey dives, we heard reef-shattering explosions in the vicinity,” says Erdmann.

Cyanide fishing is used to catch live lobster, grouper, and Napoleon wrasse for export to Asian live seafood markets, and this further threatens marine ecosystems in the area. Additionally, mining and logging in nearby coastal regions threaten to degrade water quality, possibly encouraging a population increase of the destructive crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) that leave a trail of dead coral in their path.

A plan to transfer fisheries pressure from Indonesia’s over-fished western seas eastward toward the Bird’s Head region may exacerbate these threats. While human population density is low in this remote corner of the world, the coastal people of the Bird’s Head are heavily dependent on the sea for their livelihoods.

“The coastal villages we surveyed were mostly engaged in subsistence fishing, farming and gathering, and require healthy marine ecosystems to survive,” explains Paulus Boli, a researcher from the State University of Papua who led a socioeconomic component of the expeditions. “We are very concerned about the potential impact of planned commercial fisheries expansion in the region, and urge a precautionary approach that emphasizes sustainability over intensive exploitation.”