Ian Ridge

Carli Underhill

Chemistry, Humanities

June 12, 2022

Overfishing Impacts on Coral Reefs & Marine Life

Overfishing is a huge problem that's affecting our earth's populations of fish. Overfishing

is when fisherfolk fish an ecosystem or specific fish beyond the point of the fish or ecosystem

being able to recover in time. Overfishing affects many ecosystems and places around the world,

but today, we are going to look at its effects on coral reefs. Coral reefs take up a total of 1% of

our earth's oceans, and support 25% of all marine life, because it's an essential part of many life

cycles (EPA, 2021). With healthy and balanced ecosystems, the fish, coral, and animals can

thrive. But with overfishing, these delicate ecosystems could fall apart and fracture, putting

billions of fish in danger. 55% of all coral reefs are overfished, so we already have some

evidence of this (Coral Reef Alliance, 2022). All of this information begs the question: How

does overfishing affect our coral reefs? Overfishing is very present in coral reefs because of the

high fish concentration and desirable fish, and it has a negative impact on both the flora and

fauna in coral reefs due to a chain reaction of cause and effect in which removing some small

part of the ecosystem can become detrimental to coral reefs and the well-being of many marine

animals, including other ecosystems.

Overfishing in coral reefs can affect a wide variety of people. An estimated 500 million

people around the world directly rely on coral reefs for their well being, and an estimated 275

million live within the direct vicinity of a coral reef (Wilkinson, 2004; Burke, 2011). Overfishing

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is bad for the coral reefs because it removes important things that keep the ecosystem in balance.

Without some of these things, the ecosystem could fall apart, the coral reefs shrink, and the

amount of fish and biodiversity will fall rapidly.

Removing Important Components

Overfishing in coral reefs can remove fish that are important to maintaining the health

and population of coral, and the whole reef. Parrotfish and angelfish (and other spongivores) in

the Caribbean eat sponges and protect the reef from sponge overgrowth. A study(2015) shows

how historically overfished areas, when compared to Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), had much

more sponge overgrowth (Loh, et al., 2015). MPA sponges were found in much less quantity, just

over 2 times less than overfished areas, but had better defenses to predators (Loh, et al., 2015).

This means that overfished sites in coral reefs remove spongivores from the ecosystem and let

sponge overgrowth destroy the reef-building coral, which is a valuable resource, shelter,

nutrients, barrier from rough waves, and habitats for the animals and plants living in the reefs.

When too many herbivorous fish are removed from an environment, the amount of coral

decreases and the amount of algae increases. This is because the fish eat the algae and keep it

down to a healthy level. A peer-reviewed journal (2022) shows that when there are less fish to

eat the algae, it can spread to and grow on the rocky substrate that coral needs to start growing

new colonies(Encounter edu., 2022). The coral canot spread or reproduce, and after enough time

the coral will be gone altogether and the reef will disappear from the ocean. So, as a result of

taking our too many herbivorous fish from a reef, the algae could become overgrown and stop

the coral from reproducing and destroy the coral. Because the coral is a valuable resource,

shelter, nutrient, barrier from rough waves, and habitat, the coral reef will cease to exist. This

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means that the removal of just one species or category of fish by overfishing or bycatch could

cause the collapse of the entire coral reef.

Reefs Support the Greater Ocean

Overfishing in coral reefs can be dangerous because other marine systems rely on the

systems of the coral reefs to thrive. Other ocean systems rely on coral reefs for nutrients, water,

and plankton. Plankton is a huge food source for the ocean and lots of fish, even reef fish,

consume plankton for nutrients. According to a source, most plankton spawn or float on the top

of the water, less than 200 meters deep, and near shallow areas (Rowe, 2017). Currents pull

nutrients like plankton out into the open ocean where many other ocean systems can feed on it.

Without coral reefs, many species and systems would suffer because of this blow to their diet and

food web. Many fish eat plankton, and in turn we rely on these nutrients from coral reefs. Pelagic

fish(fish who live in the upper water column) and pelagic mammals consume lots of the plankton

that gets pulled out of and from near coral reefs, but the reefs also have some pelagic predators

that enter the reef. Coral reef fishery target species are reliant on pelagic production, and the

plankton of that season(Skinner, 2019). Since pelagic fish(who also include lots of fish that we

fish commercially and eat often) go to reefs to eat algae and plankton and smaller prey fish when

there isn't a lot of food in the pelagic zone, the pelagic fish that we eat often are sometimes

reliant on coral reefs. This means that the coral reefs are large food sources for pelagic fish and

fish in other marine ecosystems, and that a lot of marine animals are reliant on them as a food

source. The collapse of a coral reef could mean a huge blow for marine life, and the well-being

of many marine animals, plants, and ecosystems.

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 In conclusion, how does overfishing affect our coral reefs? Overfishing is very prevalent

in coral reefs because of the high fish concentration and desirable fish, and it has a negative

impact on both the flora and fauna in coral reefs due to a chain reaction of cause and effect in

which removing some small part of the ecosystem can become detrimental to coral reefs and the

well-being of many animals, including other ecosystems. Removing fish like parrotfish,

angelfish, and herbivorous fish in large amounts like in overfishing, or because of bycatch, is bad

for the coral reefs, because they help keep the ecosystem, coral, and the biodiversity intact. Other

marine systems rely on coral reefs for food and nutrients, so losing coral reefs could also be a

blow to other ecosystems and our commercially fished fish. Our key takeaways are the health of

our coral reefs are important because they are not only important to other marine systems, but

also to us humans as a whole. Coral reefs support more than a quarter of all marine life so it's

important to keep them safe for the oceans health. It's important to look at overfishing as a threat

to our coral reefs because they can remove important parts of the ecosystem, and destroy the

reef. If we continue overfishing our reefs, there could be irreparable damage to not only the reefs

but other marine systems and as a result, us. To help our oceans and reefs, you can do your own

research as to where your fish comes from and you can donate to marine conservation

organizations like the surfrider foundation to help conserve our oceans and reefs.

Works cited

“Basic Information About Coral Reefs.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, July 2021,

https://www.epa.gov/coral-reefs/basic-information-about-coral-reefs.

“Learn More: The Effects of Overfishing on Coral Reefs.” Encounter Edu, Encounter Edu, Ltd.,

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 2022.

“Local Threats to Coral Reefs.” Coral Reef Alliance, 9 Sept. 2021,

https://coral.org/en/coral-reefs-101/direct-threats/.

“Value of Reefs.” Reef Resilience, The Nature Conservancy,

https://reefresilience.org/value-of-reefs/.

Link, J. S., & Watson, R. A. (2019). Global ecosystem overfishing: Clear delineation within real

limits to production. Science advances, 5(6), eaav0474.

Le Pape, O., Bonhommeau, S., Nieblas, A. E., & Fromentin, J. M. (2017). Overfishing causes

frequent fish population collapses but rare extinctions. Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(31), E6274.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706893114

Loh, T. L., McMurray, S. E., Henkel, T. P., Vicente, J., & Pawlik, J. R. (2015). Indirect effects of

overfishing on Caribbean reefs: sponges overgrow reef-building corals. PeerJ, 3, e901.

https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.901

Skinner, C., Newman, S. P., Mill, A. C., Newton, J., & Polunin, N. (2019). Prevalence of pelagic

dependence among coral reef predators across an atoll seascape. The Journal of animal

ecology, 88(10), 1564–1574. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13056

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Wilkinson, Clive R. (2004). Status of coral reefs of the world: 2004. Vol. 1. Australia Institute of

Marine Sciences. Townsville, Queensland, Australia. 301p.

https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/8583

Burke, L., K. Reytar, M. Spalding, and A. Perry. (2011) Reefs at Risk Revisited. World

Resources Institute (WRI), The Nature Conservancy, WorldFish Center, International

Coral Reef Action Network, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Global

Coral Reef Monitoring Network, Washington, D.C. 114p.

Gilbert T. Rowe. (2017) Habitats and Biota of the Gulf of Mexico: Before the Deepwater Horizon

Oil Spill, Section 1.7 Offshore Plankton and Benthos of the Gulf of Mexico. Springer

open, New York, New York. 1745p.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-3447-8_7