Rebirth of a Mexican Marine Park, Big Fish Back Home

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: IBT

The Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico's Gulf of California imposed a ban on fishing and other extractive activities 15 years ago, and since then, the total mass of its residents has increased five times the amount, a new study revealed.

According to the study, which was conducted by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego from 1999 to 2009, the total number of fish in the reserve ecosystem increased over 460 percent with 10 years. Researchers published the findings of the study in the Public Library of Science journal.

It was in 1995 that the Cabo Pulmo National Park was protected to preserve the largest coral community in the Gulf of California. After four years, when researchers checked the marine park, they didn't find so many fishes, except of a few medium-sized ones.



Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/197496/20110814/rebirth-of-a-mexican-marine-park-big-fishes-back-home-cabo-pulmo-national-park-in-mexico-gulf-of-cal.htm

[Sinistrous]

1. Beautiful pictures at link.

If you haven't already, give the link a click.

[tawadi]

9. Amazing vid of the schools of fish!

:-)

[Odin2005]

2. PURRRTY!!!

[Bigmack]

3. Fish are amazingly resilient...

given half a chance they keep coming back.

Too bad we seldom give them even half a chance.

Read "Four Fish" - By Paul Greenberg.... great read about wild and farmed fish.

[X_Digger]

4. I wish they'd had more pictures of the reef itself..

Love to know how the 'no anchor' / 'no harvest' policy is affecting the reef itself, not just the fish.

[AlecBGreen]

5. thanks for the eye candy!

:thumbsup:

[Plucketeer]

6. Nice to find something heartening here

The vid is great to watch!

[xchrom]

7. gorgeous. nt

[Theobald]

8. I've been there a few times

and will be back again in a few weeks. It is quite amazing. Jacques Cousteau called Cabo Pulma 'natures aquarium', it is great to see the conservation effort paying dividends.