Diagnostic of the conservation status of fringing reefs from the Abrolhos National Marine Park

Abstract

In many regions of the world, subaquatic tourism on coral reefs is causing changes in this delicate ecosystem. The increase in number of tourists on coral reefs is more and more interesting and perturbing the scientific community as well as managers of marine protected areas. The Abrolhos National Marine Park, created in 1983, is the home of a rich reef fauna, constituted by endemic species remaining from the Tertiary Period. This important marine protected area is suffering with increase in the amount of tourists. In the last decade the number of visitors varies from 3500 in 1993 to more than 14500 in 1997. Such increase in the tourist population caused changes on the fringing reef communities of Mato Verde area (Santa Bárbara Island), the most visited area in the entire park. The Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) protocol showed significative differences among coral communities, which composes the fringing reefs of the Archipelago. Comparison among reefs opened to visitors with the closed ones allowed to attribute preservation status to coral communities, classifying them into: well preserve, intermediate and degradate. The most visited area showed biotic indexes like: live coral cover, occurrence and colony diameter of the dominant species, species richness and coral recruitment below than the average by all of the studied reefs, while the closed or occasional visited areas exhibited higher indexes. In this work the number of carry capacity is established in 6000 divers/year/site to minimize the impact because the Mato Verde reef, classified as degradate, shows a number of divers higher than what is established. Key words: Coral. Reef. Park. Tourists. Preservation. Carring Capacity.