Reef and Fisheries Assessment of Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge (2002-9)

Typical Haitian fishing boat with Navassa Island in the background
Photo Credit: SEFSC

Underwater landscape with elkhorn coral in the clear, oceanic waters of Navassa
Photo Credit: SEFSC

Navassa is a small oceanic island (5.2 km2 in size) located ~30 km west of the southwest tip of Haiti, 160km south of the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in the heart of the Windward Passage. It is claimed by the US and under the jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, but is also claimed by Haiti. Though uninhabited, the island is frequented, and reef fisheries are exploited, by transient Haitian fishers. The lack of local land-based anthropogenic pollution at Navassa provides an important comparison of Caribbean reef condition and trends under fishing and global stressors, but without local land-based stressors. Approximately biennial reef assessment cruises were conducted by SEFSC between 2002 and 2009. Unfortunately, little if any ecological baseline information is available on Navassa reef condition prior to the turn of the 2st century.

Despite its remoteness, Navassa corals have been subject to similar catastrophic declines as observed in other Caribbean reefs. Coral disease outbreaks and thermally induced mass bleaching events have both been characterized at Navassa and have contributed to an overall decline in live coral cover from ~34% to ~8% averaged over randomly selected sites along the southwest coast. In contrast to this declining pattern for corals overall, the imperiled elkhorn coral is apparently thriving at Navassa with an expanding population and generally good colony condition observed over the survey period. Fishing effort appears to vary over time, with apparently higher levels of effort and impact in 2004 and some evidence of increasing fish abundance and size for at least some fishes observed between 2006 and 2009 (Karnauskas et al, in review).

This project is not currently funded, but in the past has been supported by the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, the National Wildlife Service, and the John G. Shedd Aquarium's R/V Coral Reef II.

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Miller MW, Piniak GA, Williams DE (2011) Coral mass bleaching and reef temperatures at Navassa Island, 2006. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 91(1): 42-50
Miller MW, Gleason A, McClellan D, et al. (2008) The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of Navassa Island. In: J. E. Waddell and A. M. Clarke (eds) The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2008. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 73. NOAA/NCCOS Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment's Biogeography Team, Silver Spring, MD, 569 pp
Miller MW, Halley RB, Gleason A (2008) Biology and Geology of Navassa Island. In: B. Riegl and R. E. Dodge (eds) Coral Reefs of the USA. Springer, 407-433 pp
Miller MW, Wiener JW, McClellan DB, et al. (2008) Preliminary effort and yield estimates from the Haitian fishery at Navassa Island. Proceedings of the 60th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. 60: 254-256
Miller MW, McClellan DB, Wiener JW, et al. (2007) Apparent rapid fisheries escalation at a remote Caribbean island. Environmental Conservation 34(2): 92-94
Miller M, Williams DE (2007) Coral disease outbreak at Navassa, a remote Caribbean island. Coral Reefs 26(1): 97-101
Wiener JW (2005) Oral history and contemporary assessment of Navassa Island fishermen. Report for The US Department of Commerce NOAA/NMFS
Swain T, Wulff J (2004) Sponges of Navassa: A photographic key
Miller MW, McClellan DB, Begin C (2004) Observations on fisheries activities at Navassa Island. Marine Fisheries Review 65(3): 43-49
Miller MW, Ed. (2003) Status of reef resources of Navassa Island: cruise report Nov. 2002. NOAA Technical Memorandum. NMFS-SEFSC-501

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Reef and Fisheries Assessment of Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge (2002-9)

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