MAR Health Report Card
What Is It?
Report cards are useful public awareness and advocacy tools. We are in the early stage of developing a ‘report card’ as a communication tool to track the health of the Mesoamerican Reef in a way that is straightforward and easily understood for practitioners, scientists, the public, and decision makers.
Why Use It?
The report card will provide a quick ecoregional assessment of conditions and trends. Single letter grades are helpful because they raise public awareness and concern. Readers also can understand it without having a scientific background.
What Does It Mean?
The letter grades will reflect ongoing analysis of field data – as interpreted through the lens of selected ecological and socio-economic indicators. We will be working with an expert advisory panel over the next several months to convert selected indicators of reef health into indexed values, including a ranking and grading of each index.
MAR Reef Health Report Card
Coral Reefs:
This represents the combined analysis of indicators of benthic cover, coral disease, coral bleaching, and predation, coral recruitment, and herbivory (sea urchins and fish).Commercial Fisheries:
An integration of abundance, catch, and export value data for lobster, conch, snappers, and groupers.Sustainable Tourism:
An integration of the amount of marine protected areas, sustainable marine tourism groups, and amount of areas with sewage treatment.Water Quality:
An integration of biophysical data on water temperature, clarity, and salinity.Human Health:
An integration of the concentration of contaminants such as coliform bacteria, cholera vibrio, and agrochemical pollutants.An integration of the amount of protected marine and coastal habitat, educational awareness programs, and leadership of government and non-government organizations working to improve reef health conditions.
The MAR Report Card is under development.
