Behaviour of recreational spearfishers and its impacts on corals

In a paper recently published in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystem, members
of the LECAR team observed the behavior of recreational spearfishers and compare the damage caused by them to
corals among scuba divers and photographers. The study was conducted in the Abrolhos Bank, the largest and
richest reef complex of southwestern Atlantic. Results revealed that spearfishers caused an average of 1.25
contacts and 0.5 damages to corals per minute. This value is 4.5-fold higher to contacts and 9-fold higher damage
than scuba divers and photographers. Spearfisher caused the highest known rates of contacts and damage to
corals among all the activities involving recreational diving. Consecutive damage to corals can cause serious
impacts to ecosystem mainly by reducing reef complexity, affecting the entire functioning of coral reefs.

Reference: Giglio VJ, Luiz OJ, Barbosa MC, Ferreira CEL. 2017. Behaviour of recreational spearfishers and its
impacts on corals. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. doi: 10.1002/aqc.2797 PDF

Written by: Vinicius J. Giglio 09/2017