Mesoamerican Reef

Extending approximately 600 miles along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, the Mesoamerican Reef is the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere.  The region is home to more than 65 species of stony coral and more than 500 species of fish.

Threats to the region include:

Climate change
Coral bleaching, caused primarily by warmer water temperatures due to climate change, is the loss of algae that coexists with coral and provides it with most of its food. Coral bleaching occurs when sea temperatures rise by two or three degrees Fahrenheit over a short period of time. This is threatening the many species that depend on healthy corals for their habitat, including more than 500 species of fish as well as the mammoth whale shark and endangered salt water crocodile which use coral reefs as sanctuaries.

Fishing
Commercial and recreational overfishing are depleting populations of lobster, conch, and finfish. 

Shipping
The steady traffic of oil tankers that transport more than 1 million tons of crude oil a year from the port of Santo Tomas del Castillo in Guatemala puts the reef at constant risk of a catastrophic oil spill.

Agriculture
Corals need clean water, yet the water surrounding parts of the reef is seriously degraded by municipal waste contamination, bilge released from ships, sedimentation from inland deforestation, and pesticide and fertilizer runoff from inland agricultural operations. The region is also affected by changes in land use as more land is cleared for agriculture, including palm oil, banana, sugar cane, pineapple and citrus plantations.

Tourism
Rapidly growing coastal development and tourism also threatens the region. Both tourism and fisheries, the major income generators for the national economies of the countries that make up the region, depend directly on the health of the reef and associated coastal and marine ecosystems.

Aquaculture
The farming of marine and freshwater species like shrimp in Belize, provides nearly 50 percent of the seafood produced each year. As the industry grows, so do its negative impacts.