Photo: Google

XINHUA

Researchers specializing in sea resources at Mexico’s Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute have recently launched a project to restore fish biodiversity in the country’s Caribbean coral reefs.

Jesús Ernesto Arias González, a researcher at the center, said:, “We realize this (restoration project) by using various techniques. One way is catching fish before they are grown. Then, we bring them to aquariums. Once there, we wait until they grow into juveniles and catch them, then put them back to the reefs. In this way, we can increase the amount of fish and fish species in this area, so as to add biodiversity in coral reefs.”

This project is being performed along Mexico’s Riviera Maya, a tourism hotspot on the Caribbean coastline.

González said coral coverage increase will in turn lead to an increase of fish biomass.

“We found that there has been an increase of fish biomass as the coral coverage in these reefs increase. We also discovered the biodiversity in this area is associated with the coral situation here,” said González.

Mexico has the second-largest coral reef system in the world. In the Mexican Caribbean, coral reefs are home to millions of plants and animals.