Aside from containing the most diverse ecosystem in the planet, Coral reefs play a valuable role in the marine ecosystem. They protect coastlines from wave actions and tropical storms, provide habitats and shelter for marine organisms, are the source of nitrogen and other essential nutrients for the marine food chain, and assist in nitrogen and carbon fixing. The Caribbean (located near Central America) is home to 9% of the world’s coral reefs, but only one-sixth of the original coral cover remains. These beautiful species are on the verge of collapsing with less than 10% of the reef area showing its coral cover. 

Scientists of the IUCN World Conservation Congress assert that these coral reefs are in danger of devastation unless urgent action is taken. Tourism and leisure events being the Caribbean’s pleasing feature, they are included in the severe environmental problems that cause the dying growth rate of coral reefs. They say that the drastic loss resulted from over-exploitation, pollution from agricultural run-off, and other environmentally detrimental outcomes of climate change. Warnings over the poor state of the corals of the Caribbean have been more frequent during the past decade with its rapid decline, as pollution, increase pressure on fish stocks, and the effects of global warming on the marine environment - in the form of higher sea temperatures and elevated levels of acidity in the ocean - have taken their toll. 

However, the decline of coral reefs is not beyond our control. Corals that were protected from overfishing, as well as other threats such as excessive coastal pollution, tourism, and coastal development, were more resilient to pressures from climate change. Despite these inevitable conditions and unintentional human impacts, there is hope for coral reef ecosystems and expectations to recover the lost corals or even prevent further coral destruction. Are there ways we can strengthen the resilience of tropical reef ecosystems so they can adapt or withstand fluctuating ocean conditions? Research from the University of California Santa Barbara demonstrates how coral reef systems have been grown to be more resilient in the Caribbean and concludes that the management in the fisheries industry had an influential role to play in strengthening this resilience.

The Caribbean is not alone in its mission of working toward managed ecosystem resilience. There are various ways to preserve ecological equilibrium through the implementation of distinct types of fishery control practices. In other regions where the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is launched, such as in Cuba and Belize, spatial protections and additional preservation measures are being employed in systems that control populations of herbivores. They, too, are displaying tolerance and resilience in the environment’s possible changes by the stable health conditions of the herbivore conformities. In the Latin American-Caribbean areas, spatial preservation measures and different forms of fishery management programs are being employed in ways that would strengthen reef resilience.