Fishing interests in Port Antonio are concerned that the reef restoration project now being piloted in that end of the island could be threatened by what they say are high levels of untreated sewage seeping into the sea from soak away pits.

The reef project, being financed over two years by the Inter-American Bank to the tune of US$350,000, aims to replace the coral stock that has been destroyed over several years by hurricanes, high nutrient levels, overfishing, and a plethora of other ills, as a means of promoting a healthy marine environment in general, and enhancing the fish population. It is being implemented by the Centre for Marine Sciences at the University of the West Indies in association with the Alligator Head Foundation.

But at a community consultation in Turtle Crawle, Port Antonio on Sunday, World Environment Day, fishermen said while they are willing to volunteer to assist the researchers with the reef-building work, they fear it won’t be successful in the end without regulatory changes to the building code, and to the practice of fishing, for example.

“I don’t think coral reefs will change the fish population because there is a whole heap of live coral under the water already. You have to regulate the size of the fish that you catch otherwise it (overfishing) not going to stop,” said Ketus Osbourne, a fisherman for some 21 years.

His colleague, Fedlyn Bailey, a diver and fisherman for some 30 years, agreed.

“Most of the areas with reef damage are areas with hotels. The areas with no hotel and no guest house have bigger, better fish because they not getting any chlorine water flushing on them. They need to target chemicals from the hotels, fishermen and the type of gear we use, like the size of the nets, and farming in the hills,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Adding the point about the importance of a regulatory environment, Errol Shaw said: “I’ve been fishing since I was seven and now I’m 60. I’ve been all over the world, even to Alaska, and when they say you can only catch five fish, is only five. You can’t catch six”.

Coral reefs provide a home to marine animals and enhance tourism and fisheries as products, as well as protect shorelines from erosion. However, they are fragile and are under threat from warm temperatures, ocean acidification, blast fishing, cyanide fishing, urban and agricultural runoff from pesticides, and other chemicals, which encourage excess algal growth.

The UWI/IDB project is seeking to mitigate such depletion by identifying and cultivating species that are resistant to the ravages.

As explained by the researchers, the marine labs at Alligator Head and Discovery Bay each have 60 pieces of coral growing in their nurseries. They are five of the hardiest types — the fast-growing lettuce and elkhorn corals, and three types of the much slower growing star corals.

“They’ve survived hurricanes, loss of sea urchins, high nutrient levels, rising temperatures, sedimentation and overfishing, so they have already proven themselves,” research coordinator at Alligator Head Marine Lab Denise Henry said, explaining the reason for selecting the five coral species.

We took 12 pieces from each site and made them into 60, using fragmentation, she added.

Those at the Discovery Bay location have been growing for a year, while the Alligator Head set have only been growing for six months, but the researchers declined to commit to a date when they will plant them.

“We have to wait until they are of the appropriate size before we outplant them,” scientific officer at the Centre for Marine Sciences at the University of the West Indies Patrice Francis said.

Educational officer at the Portland Environment Protection Association Marcia Henry told the Observer that the majority of buildings in Portland, particularly the older ones, use soak-away pits as opposed to septic tanks as there is no central sewage treatment facility.

“With the amount of rain we have in Portland, once it starts to soak it’s all going to end up in the rivers and ultimately the sea,” she said.

And while chief scientific officer at the Discovery Bay Marine Lab Camilo Trench agreed that untreated effluent was a major threat to the reef, he maintained that doing something was better than doing nothing, and appealed to the regulatory authorities, namely the National Environment and Planning Agency and the parish councils to address the situation.

“Other than climate change, which is a global phenomenon, the primary challenge to the reef is from nutrients; sewage coming from some construction types with soak-away pits…We believe it’s a major threat as well; the water quality and mix of these chemicals in the water,” he said.

The IDB project comes to a formal end in November, but the researchers say the work won’t stop as the findings of the project will serve as baseline data to inform future work.