But as with land highways, this sea corridor can be dangerous. Excessive fishing, commercial development and illegal fin practices threaten species such as whale sharks, reef sharks and manta rays. These creatures are already in a fragile state, with more than a third of sharks and rays endangered worldwide.
“We are seeing a steady decline in many sharks and shark populations in most countries where surveillance is taking place,” said Rachel Graham, founder of MarAlliance, a non-profit organization focused on protecting sharks and rays across America. “Our goal is to reverse this decline,” she added.
By monitoring endangered marine life in the region, MarAlliance is able to gather important knowledge about populations that can help inform conservation and urge policy action. But instead of acting in opposition to the local fishing community, NGOs enlist their help.
“They’re the ones at sea every day,” Graham says, “and they’re the ones who will decide the long-term fate of sharks and fish.”
Fishers has become an environmentalist
MarAlliance employs up to 60 fishermen in its full range, mostly on a project basis, training them to collect data and mark and release fish. This not only provides an alternative income for fishing communities, making them less dependent on natural resources, but also teaches them about the benefits of a healthy ocean ecosystem and how to fish sustainably.
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Ivan Torres is one of these fishermen. Before working for MarAlliance, he said he hunted sharks to sell them locally as food, but now he has learned how crucial they are to the health of the entire ecosystem. As top predators, they help keep other populations under control, and by maintaining balance, they can actually increase daily catches for fishermen.
“I would never hunt sharks again … because now I know how important they are to the sea,” he says.
If this change in attitudes continues to spread to fishing communities along the Mesoamerican Reef, Graham hopes for populations of sharks and other species.
“The main threat to sharks is undoubtedly overfishing,” she said, and by reforming the industry, populations can recover.
In 2020, Belize banned the use of gillnets, large panels of mesh that hang in the water and are known to entangle large marine animals. The impact of the ban is already visible in areas such as Lighthouse Reef, an atoll off the continent, Graham said.
This was an area suffering from overfishing, with some boats crossing international waters to exploit its resources. But between 2019 and 2021, MarAlliance recorded a 10-fold increase in atoll shark populations. “What we see is nothing short of a miracle,” she said.
But these types of regulations need to be replicated across the superhighway for long-term impact, and countries need to find a sustainable balance between fishermen and catches.
Graham hopes that by educating and providing an economic alternative for fishing communities, MarAlliance will help ensure the safe passage of megafauna along the reef.
“We need to find this winning strategy between fishermen’s livelihood and shark survival,” she said.
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