Assessing the current and future sustainability of coral reef ornamental fisheries under different management scenarios.

Many species of wild marine ornamental fish and invertebrates are collected from tropical coral reefs to supply the international marine aquarium trade. Today, an estimated 2300 species of fish and 725 species of invertebrates are traded, with most of the supply originating from the Indo-Pacific region and destined for final sale in the United States or Europe.

Tropical marine fisheries are highly biodiverse, but lack the underlying data needed to develop effective management protocols called for in national and international policy. The ornamental fisheries provide important livelihood provisioning to local communities in source countries, and their monetary (~$20 bn /year; (King, 2019)) and inherent value can be used as an incentive to protect local reef ecosystems.

This PhD will build and develop assessment methods that promote sustainable harvesting of small ornamental reef fish to benefit both biodiversity and the socio-economic systems that rely on them. This work will be completed using pre-existing life history parameters instead of size spectra, due to preferential targeting of small and juvenile fish skewing population demographics, and published range data (FishBase, FishTraits).

In addition, data from a case study field location in Indonesia where estimates of catch (e.g., fishers' receipts and invoices of fish collected) are available. Modelling approaches to predict the future sustainability of fisheries under different management scenarios will also be developed. The PhD will contribute to better understanding of the population status and sustainability of marine ornamental fisheries.