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rates and buccaneers who looted Spanish and British ships for booty.

In more recent times, the small population of Belize-200,000-has placed modest demands on the reef. A local fishery, a small tourist industry, small-scale shipping, and scientific researchers have been its principal users. Now the pressures of progress

loom on the horizon.

Tourism and fishing are Belize's largest industries. Each year, increasing numbers of tourists throng to the reef and its waters for sailing, fishing, diving, snorkeling, and sightseeing. Unchecked, these activities could seriously harm the ecosystem. There has already been talk of dredging to accommodate harbors and yacht marinas, and of building large hotels to attract still more tourists.

Commercial fishing has rapidly expanded in response to lucrative markets for lobster, conch, grouper, snapper, and other seafood products. High demand and steadily rising prices abroad (U.S. $10 per pound for lobster) encourage further exploitation of commercial stocks.

Not surprisingly, there is growing conflict between the various users of the reef and the conservationists who wish to see it maintained in its pristine state. Commercial fishing, in particular, has reached the maximum production level in some areas. Stock depletion-already in evidence-is reversible when wise management plans are adopted early enough and strictly enforced. Fortunately, Belize Fisheries has deployed government patrol boats to monitor the amounts taken. The agency also is encouraging more-sustainable fishing practices and diversification into other areas, such as mariculture (literally, farming the sea). Shrimp are being raised commercially, and plans are under way to farm conch, grouper, and s snapper.

A much greater problem is the effect of rapidly expanding agriculture and industry on the mainland. The Belize barrier reef ecosystem is inextricably linked to mainland activities via the numerous rivers and natural

drainages that transport runoff to the sea. The runoff often contains suspended solids, herbicides, pesticides, and other hazardous materials as well

60 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

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The Undersea World of Jacque Carter

"t was early in the morning when I entered Boca Chica, a meandering channel of mangrove swamp in Belize's Hol Chan Marine Reserve. The muddy banks were washed out in many places, forming sheer walls, overhangs, and caves. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the water to reveal encrusting algae, sponges, anemones, tunicates, and oysters, all firmly attached to whatever solid object was available. Schools of tiny sardines and silversides sought shel-ter amid the tangled web of mangrove prop roots. Mangrove snappers, their canines exposed, cruised the deeper water of the channel in search of prey. A pair of gray angelfish moved with deliberate grace among skirting schools of plankton feeding herring, while scrappy bonefish rooted for food in the soft bottom of the tidal flats. I reached out my hand in vain to touch a pair of checkered pufferfish as they floated like tiny balloons above the bottom.

Later that afternoon I snorkeled nearby in the quiet waters of the back-reef lagoon. Below me, schools of silvery mojarras, tails twitching, probed the bottom in search of small worms, crabs, and shrimp. Turtlegrass sprouted in thick clumps, its root system helping to stabilize the soft sands. A pipefish stood on its nose in an effort to conceal itself among waving blades of sea grass.

The wake from my fins startled a yellow stingray partially buried in the sandy bottom. Just moments after the stingray scurried away, two giant manta rays, each at least 15 feet across, passed like ships before me. As I turned to watch them, one of these so-called devil fish leaped into the air, somersaulted, and fell back with a resounding splash!

My favorite place for fish-watching is the Hol Chan cut, a natural break in the reef crest that connects the quiet waters of the back-reef lagoon with the turbulence of the fore

reef. The sea bottom at the entrance
has been scoured by strong currents,
and as far as the eye can see, vast for-
ests of elkhorn, leaf, and finger cor-
als extend in narrow bands on either
side of the cut. In open areas, tile-
fish float off the bottom like ghostly
apparitions, guarding the entrances
to their hilly burrows piled high
with broken pieces of staghorn coral.
About halfway through the cut,
there is a small cave along the north
wall. Elkhorn corals, heavily en-
crusted with fire corals and colonial
anemones, encircle the roof of the
cave, and a giant boulder of brain
coral guards the entrance. Fairy bas-
slets, with purple heads and bright
orange bodies, dangle from beneath
overhangs and rocky outcrops.

On one of my many visits to the
area, I entered the cave and was
greeted by the toothy grins of sev-
eral green moray eels stretching their
rubbery necks toward me as though
I were some kind of underwater
snake charmer. Moving along, I
came upon a pair of long-snouted
butterfly fish nibbling on some or-
ganisms hidden deep in the coral
crevices. A pugnacious damselfish
bravely nipped at my fingertips
when I ventured too near its well-
cultivated algal garden. And a yel-
lowhead jawfish backed quickly into
its burrow, tail first. At night these
fish block their burrow openings
with stones or pieces of coral-no
doubt to keep out uninvited dinner
guests such as moray eels.

The Hol Chan cut is even more enchanting by moonlight. One evening, about two hours after sunset, I quietly entered the dark sea and slowly descended into a sandy depression just south of the cave entrance. My eyes adjusted quickly to the pale light and a whole new underwater world. Swarms of bioluminescent ostracods, tiny shrimplike creatures, lit up the surroundings with lightninglike flashes of Familiar coral heads appeared fuzzy, their flowery polyps extended to:

green.

capture microscopic animals and plants floating by.

Many of the fishes active during the day seek refuge at night in the nooks and crannies of the reef. My flashlight beam caught several parrotfish as they snoozed like mummies in. freshly spun mucous cocoons. Meanwhile, dark red squirrelfishes and big-eved copper sweepers emerged from their daytime lairs, and moray and conger eels, which had kept their distance earlier in the day, slithered about coral cracks and crevices looking for their evening meals.

For the experienced diver, I recommend using scuba gear to explore the deeper waters beyond the barrier reef. I have spent a great deal of time in this part of the reserve study

A diver's delight.
Hol Chan Marine
Reserve boasts
more than 500
kinds of fishes,
such as blennies
(right, in an
anemone), as well
as sponges, crabs,
and a great

variety of corals-
all in about five
square miles.

62 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

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BELIZE IS ESTABLISHING ecologists to identify the boundaries

SMALL MARINE PARKS,

INDIVIDUAL GEMS THAT

WILL BE STRUNG TOGETHER ALONG THE

BARRIER REEF IN A

NECKLACE OF

PROTECTED HABITATS.

64 WILDLIFE CONSERVATION

of marine habitats. In theory, they strive to delineate reserve boundaries so that a balance between the rates of species loss and replacement can be naturally maintained. This equilibrium is best achieved in large areas, because portions of reef damaged by natural and human activities can be replenished from undamaged parts of the same reef. Yet, when practice meets theory, it is not always possible-for financial, political, or logistical reasons-to protect big tracts of reef. Therefore, in Belize, we are trying to establish small parks, individual gems along the barrier reef that will eventually be strung together in a necklace of protected marine habitats representing as much of the reef as possible.

This past August, a coastal-zone management workshop was held in San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye, home of the Hol Chan reserve. Fifty-five experts from nine countries met to analyze the information gathered on Belize's coastal resources and to discuss current and future management efforts including the role of the international community. Recommendations for action were developed and submitted to the Belize government for review and approval.

Meanwhile, it is of utmost urgency that Belize establish an agency to de

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