Nat. Ecol. Evol. http://doi.org/cw38 (2018)

Coral reefs are a critical source of food and income for millions of people. More than half of the protein consumed in coastal tropical areas comes from reef fisheries, with fisheries dominated by small-scale and artisanal fishers. The impact of climate change, in particular bleaching events, on the reef ecosystems and the cascading effects on fisheries is not known over the longer term.

Credit: James Robinson

To understand these issues, James Robinson, of Lancaster University, UK, and collaborators analysed 44,945 daily fisheries landing records (1994–2016; 41 landing sites) from trap fishers and 960 underwater surveys of fish and habitats within the Seychelles fishing grounds (1994–2014; 12 sites).

Total catch and mean catch rates were found to be consistent or increased after bleaching events, which the authors attribute to changes in fish assemblages in line with observed increases in herbivorous target species in the underwater surveys. This is contrary to expectations of decline, and suggests that projections need to consider increased productivity of low trophic levels, such as the browsing herbivores.