Dependency of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef's tropical fisheries on reef-associated fish.

ABSTRACT: Coral reefs have been subject to mass coral bleaching, potentially causing rapid and widespread degradation of ecosystem services that depend on live coral cover, such as fisheries catch. Fisheries species in tropical waters associate with a wide range of habitats, so assessing the dependency of fisheries on coral reefs is important for guiding fishery responses to coral reef degradation. This study aimed to determine how fisheries catches associate with coral reefs in Queensland, Australia. Queensland's largest fisheries did not target fish associated with reefs, but specific sectors, particularly aquarium fisheries and commercial fisheries in the mid to northern region had a high dependence on species that use coral reefs. Regions that had a greater relative area of coral reefs had highe

SUBMITTER: Brown CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7576786 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature