Rhelyn Harder
- Parrotfish poops out coral sand that the tides wave bring to the shoreline to build beaches or augment the loss of sand
- Sand production isn’t really the main duty of parrotfishes but to clean coral reefs from algae
- Parrotfishes continuously reduce in number so there’s bigger chance of coral reefs dying
Parrotfish, also known as mol-mol, locally, is one of the favorite dishes in Filipino cuisine that turns out to be the most important species in preserving the rapid depletion of coral reefs.
A Facebook page, Seazoned Coron, shared the importance of parrotfish as it pleaded to stop buying and catching such kind of fish as it is responsible for natural sand production.
A parrotfish is a flamboyant, algae-eating, and sand-popping fish as they eat dead corals. Its name is said to be derived from its “fused teeth” that resembles the parrot’s beak. It also has another set of teeth in its throat. This type of fish spend up to 90% of their day nibbling. In other words, they clean the reef and poop out coral sand which the tides bring to the shoreline to build beaches or augment the loss of sands.
A message from Holger W. Horn states that a large species of parrotfish in Hawaii produces up to 800 pounds of coral sand a year, and one species in Australia up to one ton of sand a year.
Sand production isn’t really the main duty of parrotfishes but to clean coral reefs from algae which can be the greatest threat to corals beside global warming. And if these parrot fishes continuously reduce in number, there is a bigger chance of coral reefs dying.
A study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature showed that since 1970, the Carribean corals had been declining by more than 50 percent, as same as the decreasing number of parrotfish in the region.
“Most Caribbean reefs have been dominated by algae since the mid-1990s. This shift from coral to algal dominance was initiated by the combination of the mass die-off of sea urchins (the other key herbivore) and the overfishing of parrotfish,” Johnson said, citing the study.
https://www.facebook.com/seazonedcoron/posts/279932569564541?_rdc=1&_rdr
Experts and concerned citizens discourage fishermen and merchants, selling parrot fish to save coral reef for the years to come.
