Veracruz Coral Reef System
The Veracruz Coral Reef System is a vital marine ecosystem located in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, comprising approximately 23 reefs spread across a 202-square-mile area. This system is divided into two clusters by the Jamapa River, with one cluster near the port city of Veracruz and the other near Punta Antón Lizardo. It faces significant threats from overfishing, pollution, and climate change, despite being partially protected since the establishment of the Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park in the 1990s. The park serves as a critical habitat for diverse marine life, including nearly 30 species of hard corals and over 150 species of fish, making it a popular destination for tourists, snorkelers, and divers.
Although the park's establishment has provided some level of protection, ongoing challenges such as untreated sewage, agricultural runoff, and the decline of coastal mangroves continue to stress the coral reefs. Additionally, the system's relative isolation hampers the replenishment of coral larvae from other areas, exacerbating its vulnerability. Conservation efforts, including collaborations with scientific institutions, aim to assess the health of the reefs and develop effective management strategies. The Veracruz Coral Reef System highlights the broader struggles faced by coral ecosystems worldwide and underscores the importance of concerted conservation efforts to ensure their survival and recovery.
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Veracruz Coral Reef System
Category: Marine and Oceanic Biomes.
Geographic Location: Caribbean Sea.
Summary: This interconnected near-shore system of reefs faces severe pressure from human activity.
The Veracruz Coral Reef ecosystem is comprised of approximately 23 reefs that form a submarine range across the continental shelf of the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The reef clusters are separated into two groups by the mouth of Mexico’s Jamapa River, with one cluster to the north of the river, offshore from the port city of Veracruz, and the other to the south near Punta Antón Lizardo. The total surface area is approximately 202 square miles (52,238 hectares).
The reef systems face the classic triple-threat of overfishing, pollution (from sewage, agricultural runoff, and land-use change), and climate change. Management action in the 1990s designated a 200-square-mile (518-square-kilometer) Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzana (Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park) around this system, which has protected it to some degree. The biome is still under stress from coastal pollution and climate change, and is generally considered to be one of the most threatened coral-reef systems in the greater Caribbean region.
The Veracruz Coral Reef system is located in a portion of the Gulf of Mexico that is relatively isolated from similar reef systems, lacking a major current connection to other reef areas in the Yucatan area and the greater Caribbean. Freshwater input to the system comes largely from the Jamapa, Papaloapan, and La Antigua rivers; it totals, on average, roughly 10 billion gallons (378 billion liters) per year. This is not enough to affect salinity in the reef system, but bears a great deal of sediment and pollution from untreated human sewage, as well as agricultural discharges. Other threats to the system include ship groundings, oil spills, port construction, and continued fishing pressure.
Reefs range from directly adjacent to the shoreline to approximately 12 miles (19 kilometers) from shore. Depth ranges from shallow lagoons less than 6 feet (2 meters) below the surface to relatively deep reef formations at about 150 feet (46 meters) in depth. The maximum depth in the region is approximately 230 feet (70 meters).
In addition to the natural reefs, there are at least seven artificial (human-made) reefs located within the park boundaries, and there may be as many as 350 shipwreck sites. The abundance and diversity of readily accessible near-shore venues within recreational diving limits make the Veracruz Coral Reef system a popular destination for tourists, snorkelers, and divers alike. It also attracts many types of fauna, from invertebrates to fish, eels, and marine mammals.
Nearly 30 species of hard coral and various soft coral types have been documented here, along with coralline algae, turf algae, and macroalgae species. Together, they provide habitat foundation for numerous mollusks, clams, snails, starfish, shrimp, lobsters, sea urchins, and at least 150 species of fish.
Fish species thriving in this reef system range from more than one dozen species of bass and grouper, to snapper, jack, grunt, wrasse, goby, puffer, damselfish, and parrotfish. There are at least four types of moray eel in residence—green, goldentail, spotted, and reticulate—as well as southern stingray, spotted eagle ray, and lesser electric ray.
Threats and Conservation
In 1992, Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari designated the 130,000-acre (52,609-hectare) Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park, one of the largest such parks in Mexico, in an attempt to curb irrational exploitation of marine resources in this area and to protect resources for future generations. In 2006, the national park was designated a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Education-al, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In general, while well-enforced legal protection is effective in reducing point-source threats, it can do little to prevent stressors outside the boundaries of the preserve. The Veracruz system is no exception; while effective legislative and management efforts can control direct effects to the reef, such as fishing, boat traffic, and dredging, the reef still suffers from high nutrient loading (which encourages the growth of smothering algae over corals)—predominantly from untreated sewage, but also from agricultural chemical use. Deforestation of near-shore mangrove ecosystems, which serve as nurseries for many reef fish and also absorb nutrients and trap sediments, has exacerbated this problem.
The relative isolation of this system reduces larval recruitment from other reef systems. This makes it almost wholly dependent on internal recruitment, which has declined dramatically for the above reasons. As a result, the Veracruz Coral Reef System remains one of the most threatened such systems in the greater Caribbean region.
Recently, efforts have been made by park managers, in collaboration with the National Coral Reef Institute, to inventory the park’s biological assets and correlate the abundance and disease of fish and coral to freshwater loading and other human effects in the region. As of the mid-2010s, hard coral cover was in the range of 4–38 percent in areas surveyed, alt-hough many reef communities showed evidence of coral disease. While the nature and mechanics of coral pathogens are not fully understood, it is well known that stressed corals are more susceptible to disease. Warmer water temperatures, an effect of global warming, tend to be another stressor of corals and can even lead to bleaching events. Climate change also fuels more severe storms, which often wreak havoc below the waves as coral reefs take the brunt of heavy seas.
These ongoing projects are critically important for establishing effective management strategies, as well as understanding the effect of human activity on the region. The Veracruz Coral Reef system is far from unique in the threats which it faces, as coral reef ecosystems throughout the Caribbean and the world face varying degrees of stress from climate change, overfishing, and pollution. While areas such as Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park have proven to be important tools in the management and protection of these fragile ecosystems, they are by no means a magic-bullet solution and must be coupled with social, behavioral, and legislative change on every scale, from local to global.
Fortunately, coral reefs provide a valuable array of ecosystem services, ranging from tourism and fishing to shoreline protection from storms, to providing spawning and nursery habitat for many marine species that migrate to other parts of the sea. Because of this, there is strong incentive to protect these systems to the greatest degree possible. Human scientific and conservation actions of the past few decades offer hope that this unique ecosystem can be protected and can fully recover.
Bibliography
Rangel Avalos, M. A., L. K. B. Jordan, B. K. Walker, D. S. Gilliam, E. Carvajal Hinojosa, and R. E. Spieler. Fish and Coral Reef Communities of the Parque Nacional Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano (Veracruz Coral Reef System National Park) Veracruz, Mexico: Preliminary Results. Puerto Morelos, Mexico: Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute, 2007.
Salas-Perez, J. J. and A. Granados-Barba. “Oceanographic Characterization of the Veracruz Coral Reefs System.” Atmosphera 21, no. 3 (2008).
“Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano, Mexico.” United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, December 2018, en.unesco.org/biosphere/lac/sistema-arrecifal-veracruzano. Accessed 18 Aug. 2022.
Withers, K. and J. W. Tunnell. “Reef Biodiversity.” In J. W. Tunnell, E. A. Chavez, and K. Withers, eds., Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2006.