The Success of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park as a Marine Fishery Reserve
The Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park was established in 1959 as the first national park in the Bahamas. It is also recognized as one of the first land and sea national parks under a single jurisdiction.
The regulations put in place at that time allowed for limited fisheries take. But during the early 1980s the Bahamas National Trust realized pressures on the Bahamas' national fisheries resource were unsustainable. Emphasis was on promoting fisheries exploitation and conservation took second place.
Concerned with this development the Trust rewrote the bye-laws for the Exuma Park in 1986, making the entire 176-square mile park a no-take fisheries replenishment area. Some years later, the scientific community coined the term "marine fisheries reserve" for such areas.
Now, based in part on the success of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park the establishment of such reserves is promoted worldwide as the best way to sustain fisheries resources. Most recently the park's success was highlighted at IUCN's Vth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa (for more information click here).
As a marine fisheries reserve the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park has been a tremendous success. Scientific studies now show:
The concentration of CONCH inside the Exuma Park is 31 times higher than the concentration outside the park. This conservatively provides several million CONCH outside the park for fishermen to harvest each year.
CRAWFISH tagged in the Exuma Park have been found repopulating areas around Cat Island (70 miles away).
Approximately 74% of the GROUPER in the northern Exuma region come from the Exuma Park. And grouper tagged in the Exuma Park were found off both North Long Island and South Long Island (150 miles away).
There are many other fisheries benefits beyond the boundaries of the Park, including:
- Support from fishermen who realize their catch outside the park comes from within the park.
- Government policy to protect 20% of the marine ecosystem for fisheries replenishment purposes.
- Department of Fisheries is establishing a system of Marine Protected Areas for fisheries replenishment.
- U.S. Government used the Exuma Park model to establish no take areas in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary.
- Widespread call from Bahamians for more national parks "in their own backyards".
- Ten new national parks were established in 2002, doubling the size of the National Park System.
The extraordinary benefits to fisheries are coupled with equally significant benefits to tourism and education. Having abundant marine and terrestrial life growing to large sizes and protected from harvesting, the park is a mecca for tourists and an invaluable outdoor classroom for Bahamian youth. Because of the successful working model of the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park, people see the tangible benefits such parks provide to themselves and want parks in their own areas.