Losing ecosystems will be costly

Putting an economic value on the Cayman Islands’ ecosystem and its marine wildlife could be the argument that convinces the government and opponents to conservation of the importance of preserving the environment, attendees of a public meeting on marine parks heard this week. 

John Turner of Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences, who is working with the Department of Environment on a study of the Cayman Islands’ marine parks, said a study of the value of the world’s ecosystems in 1997 showed they were worth US$33 trillion per year, almost double the whole world’s annual gross domestic product. 

He said a rough calculation of the value of single stingray locally was US$600,000 per year and that coral reefs were valued at about US$6,000 per hectare per year. 

He was responding to a suggestion from audience member Suzanne Bothwell, who said if people understood the economic impact of losing the local marine ecosystem, they would more fully support conservation measures. 

Director of the Department of Environment Gina Ebanks-Petrie told Ms Bothwell: “The idea of an economic study of the environment is something the Department of Environment has thought about for a long time.” 

“When you bring it down to dollars and cents, hopefully people who are not tuned into the environmental value in and of itself will maybe make the switch,” she said. 

Cayman’s and the world’s marine system is threatened on many sides, by over-fishing, pollution from developments, growing populations and disease. 

Over-fishing, which the establishment of the marine parks 25 years ago aimed to tackle, remains an issue today, the audience heard. According to a study done by the Department of Environment, in which 264 fishermen were questioned, almost 15,000 fish a month are taken from Grand Cayman waters and 5,205 taken from the Sister Islands.  

“What we have found has been quite alarming,” said Ms Ebanks-Petrie, who added the majority of the fish – more than 13,000 a month – being caught are reef fish. “That is very worrying. There is a very strong correlation between a healthy fish population and a healthy resilient reef,” she said. 

This means that in Grand Cayman, on average, each fisherman takes 72 fish a month from the local waters. The majority of reef fish being taken are snappers, parrotfish, jacks and triggerfish. 

Mr. Turner told a turnout of about 40 people at John A. Cumber school in West Bay on Monday, 12 September, that not all was doom and gloom for the Cayman Islands’ reefs because, unlike many other Caribbean islands, the local marine park protection laws existed and were enforced here. 

The Department of Environment is undertaking a series of public meetings to get feedback on what people envision for the future of Cayman’s marine parks. Currently, 16.7 per cent of the reef shelf around Grand Cayman is protected. The internationally recommended percentage of reef protection for an area is 30 per cent. 

Tim Austin, deputy director of the Department of Environment, said it seemed the protection of the marine parks was working in Grand Cayman and Little Cayman, because studies have shown there were more fish, less algae and fewer diseased corals within the protected areas on both those islands than in the unprotected zones. However, on Cayman Brac, the opposite was true. 

Dive operator Peter Milburn suggested all of Little Cayman should be designated as a protected marine park and no-take zone. Mr. Turner pointed out the Seychelles had once done that, making one island – St. Anne’s – a marine park that brought in US$17 million a year in tourist dollars. However, reclamation work led to sedimentation and tourists stopped coming, he said.  

The lesson learned from this is that protection of just one area is not the answer. “You need to have it replicated in other areas,” he said. 

Other members of the audience asked what was happening with the National Conservation Law, which would give more environmental protection to land and sea in Cayman. That bill is still languishing with government and is being redrafted. 

Ms Bothwell, who put forward several suggestions for helping to preserve the marine environment, suggested the establishment of a $1 million lottery or fund from which people who catch lionfish threatening the islands’ reefs get paid $1 per fish. They could then go on to sell those fish to restaurants that are starting to put lionfish on the menu. 

Lionfish are an invasive species that have voracious appetites and can clear a section of reef of juvenile fish in a few days. The Marine Conservation Law has been amended to enable divers to catch and kill lionfish – the only fish can be legally taken from the reefs in marine parks by divers. 

The latest in a series of lionfish culling tournaments will be held this weekend, organised by Ambassador Divers, with the captured lionfish being offered on the menu at Michael’s Genuine at Camana Bay. 

The West Bay meeting was part of a public consultation to inform the public and other interested parties on the findings of a three-year Darwin Initiative research project being conducted by the Department of Environment in cooperation with Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences and the Nature Conservancy in the United States. 

A full report, complete with the public’s feedback, will be made public next April, Ms Ebanks-Petrie said. 

The next meeting will be held at the East End Civil Centre at 7.30pm tonight, Thursday 15 September.