Coral reef management in the Arabian Seas

Coral reefs in the Arabian Seas exist in and are resilient to a harsh environment with extremes of temperature and salinity. Temperatures range from 16¯ C in the winter to 37¯ C in the summer and salinity may reach 40 ‰. These coral assemblages and their associated biota and fisheries are under threat from a wide variety of impacts, including global climate change and associated ocean warming, coral disease, heavy tourism pressure, sedimentation and physical habitat destruction from intense, widespread coastal development, overfishing, industrial pollution, heated, hypersaline brine effluent from desalination, and shipping. Coral reef management is primarily accomplished through the implementation of MPAs, with unknown success due to the lack of MPA management effectiveness assessments. Fisheries are the most important renewable resource in the Arabian seas and the second most important natural resource after oil and gas, but reef fisheries management in the region is poorly developed and needs to move toward a precautionary, ecosystem-based management approach. There has been increasing interest in coral reef research in the Arabian Seas, primarily to understand the resilience of corals to global environmental change. Recent advances in GIS and remote sensing provide useful tools for managing marine ecosystems.