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Mesoamerican Reef
Threats
Climate change
Although reefs are naturally prepared to withstand the onslaught of seasonal hurricanes, they are much more vulnerable to impacts caused by climate change.
Fishing
Commercial and recreational overfishing are depleting populations of lobster, conch, and finfish.
Shipping
The steady traffic of oil tankers -- transporting 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 oil palm, banana, sugar cane, pineapple and citrus plantations.
Tourism
Other threats stem from rapidly growing coastal development and tourism. Ironically, both tourism and fisheries, the major income generators for the national economies of these countries, depend directly on the health of the reef and associated coastal and marine ecosystems.
Aquaculture
The farming of marine and freshwater species like shrimp farming in Belize, provides nearly 50 percent of the seafood produced each year. As the industry grows, so do its negative impacts.
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