Subsistence Consumption of Coral Reef Fish Suggests Non-Sustainable Extraction

In the Caribbean, high human population densities and poor economies have combined to create great demand on marine resources, especially the fishes of coral reef communities that are generally more accessible to artisanal fishers. By their nature and location island societies have historically had high per capita fish consumption; they feed themselves from nearshore fish stocks. Demand for marine protein in the Caribbean, of which fish constitute the largest share, is generally far higher than either fish landings or estimated potential yield, and coral reef fishes may be dramatically overexploited. Estimates of per capita consumption, total landings, and maximum sustained harvest levels do not easily equate to the simplest of terms. They do not yield insight into the big picture concerning a fishery; they provide little insight into what frequency of consumption or number of locally caught fish by individuals might result in overharvest. The goal of my study was to put consumption of fish into terms that anyone could readily understand; accordingly the objective was to establish an arbitrary benchmark level of consumption of local reef fish by my family, continue at that level for our approximately 3-month period of residence in the Virgin Islands, and extrapolate to an annual per capita harvest of fish necessary to satisfy that level of consumption.