The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS), also popularly known as the Great Mayan Reef or Great Maya Reef, is a marine region that stretches over along the coasts of four countries –

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

, Guatemala, and Honduras – from Isla Contoy at the northern tip of the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

south to Belize, Guatemala and the Bay Islands of Honduras. The reef system includes various protected areas and parks including the

Belize Barrier Reef The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, roughly offshore in the north and in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a long section of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, ...

, Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, Hol Chan Marine Reserve (Belize),

Sian Ka'an Sian or Siyan may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Siân, a Welsh girl's name; list of people with this name Places * Sian, Iran (disambiguation), various places in Iran * Sian, Russia, a rural locality in Amur Oblast, Russia *Xi'an, China, formerly ro ...

biosphere reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...

, and the Cayos Cochinos Marine Park. Belize's coastline, including the

, is home to approximately 30% of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Belize Caye Caulker-207

It begins near Isla Contoy on the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and continues south alongside the Riviera Maya including areas like Cozumel and Banco Chinchorro. It then continues south along the eastern coast of Belize including many

cayes A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great ...

and atolls. It extends to the north-east corner of Honduras.

Biodiversity

The reef system is home to more than 65 species of

stony coral Scleractinia, also called stony corals or hard corals, are marine animals in the phylum Cnidaria that build themselves a hard skeleton. The individual animals are known as polyps and have a cylindrical body crowned by an oral disc in which a m ...

, 350 species of

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

and more than 500 species of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...

. There are numerous species that live in or around the reef system that are endangered or under some degree of protection, including the following: sea turtles (

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range ...

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when ful ...

leatherback turtle The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights ...

, and the hawksbill turtle), the queen conch, the

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the eastern US to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on un ...

, the splendid toadfish, the American crocodile, the Morelet's crocodile, the Nassau grouper, elkhorn coral, and black coral. The reef system is suffering an invasion by the red lionfish (''Pterois volitans'' and ''Pterois miles''), which is native to the Indo-Pacific region. Lionfish severely damage the reef ecosystem by eating nearly every reef-tending species, such as cleaner shrimp and other species that eat algae. These animals keep the corals clean, alive, and disease-free. Lionfish eat up to 90% of the reef-tending species in a given area within just a few months, which can result in a quick death for a reef. Valuable commercial species, such as

lobster Lobsters are a family (Nephropidae, synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, including the first pair, ...

, are being negatively affected by the spread of the lionfish due to their enormous appetite. The reef system is home to one of the world's largest populations of manatees, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 of them. Some northern areas of the reef system near Isla Contoy are home to the largest fish on the planet, the

whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Branch TA, Chen C, Cosgrove J, ...

. The normally solitary whale sharks congregate there in social groups to eat and to mate.

Conservation

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System is considered critically endangered according to the criteria of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.

References

External links

Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System Project

a collaborative project for the management and conservation of the reef system, coordinated by the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) {{coord missing, Belize Coral reefs Marine ecoregions Ecoregions of Central America Natural history of Mesoamerica Regions of Central America Ecoregions of Belize Ecoregions of El Salvador Ecoregions of Guatemala Ecoregions of Honduras Ecoregions of Mexico Protected areas of Belize Protected areas of Mexico Caribbean Sea articles missing geocoordinate data IUCN Red List of Ecosystems

Biodiversity

Conservation

See also

References

External links