Biodiversity is inherently multidimensional, combining information on the numbers, abundances, taxonomy, and traits of species. Quantifying biodiversity with finite sets of metrics is an ongoing challenge, relying on essential variables with high complementarity, accessibility, and ecological importance. Here, we explore the large-scale multivariate structure of coral reef biodiversity, identifying metrics that represent major dimensions of variation in reef composition and function. Focusing on two large-scale datasets from The Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, we conduct a range of dimensionality-reduction analyses to explore how 18 widely accessible reef biodiversity metrics are related and the multivariate information represented by each metric. We identify six variables that describe major components of variation in reef biodiversity. These are (1) hard coral cover, (2) fish biomass, (3) structural complexity, (4) coral functional composition, (5) fish functional composition, and (6) algal composition. These complementary metrics accurately predicted the multivariate structure of long-lists of biodiversity metrics (n = 14, Mantel r = 0.76), and captured large-scale information on species richness, size structure, shelter volume, non-coral sessile groups, and coral-fish interactions. Functional composition estimated via the abundances of 5-10 major functional groups was effective in predicting multi-trait functional diversity. While these six biodiversity dimensions capture a small component of coral reef species richness, they represent large components of reef biomass, habitat structure, and ultimately ecosystem functions and services. Moreover, these metrics are optimized to have high complementarity and accessibility, making them appropriate for use in a range of biodiversity conservation practices with diverse goals.

Abstract Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is a biodiversity hotspot critical to ocean health, yet it faces increasing threats from climate change and localised impacts requiring effective conservation and management action. Rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 2004 expanded No-Take Marine Reserves (NTMRs) to restrict extractive activities like fishing and collecting, creating one of the largest networks of marine reserves globally. Benefits like increased biomass of fisheries-targeted species and improved coral community health metrics have been reported, though the effects of zoning on water chemistry and seawater microbiology remain unexplored. Using data from the Great Barrier Reef Microbial Genomics Database, we investigated the structure of seawater microbiomes on 48 offshore reefs within NTMRs and fished reefs. A supervised classification method (MINT sPLS-DA) identified 350 indicator species that predict zoning with ∼71% accuracy (range 58–85%). Microbial communities broadly reflected reef states, with NTMR zones enriched in streamlined microbial oligotrophs ( Pelagibacter and SAR86) correlating with higher cover of hard coral, crustose coralline algae, and herbivore fish abundance under lower nutrient conditions. By contrast, fished reefs harbored opportunists (Flavobacteriales, especially UA16, and Pseudomonadales) associating with elevated nutrients and turf algae cover. Co-occurrence networks revealed stronger competitive interactions in fished reefs, where nutrient-responsive taxa may outcompete other microbes, underscoring the need to investigate how these shifts influence reef nutrient cycling and function. Our findings reveal ecosystem-wide effects of marine zoning beyond fish protection, with distinct seawater microbiomes between fished reefs and NTMRs, which will help build decision tools for more targeted reef health monitoring assessments.

Anthropogenic climate change is fuelling repeated marine heatwaves and has triggered the fourth global mass coral bleaching event in 2023–2025, causing widespread coral mortality worldwide. Here, we document the impacts of this event on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), where heat accumulation peaked in February–March 2024 and caused mass coral bleaching for the seventh time since 1998. We use data from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)’s Long-Term Monitoring Program (LTMP), which during the 2024–2025 season recorded coral cover on 124 reefs distributed across the full latitudinal and longitudinal extent of the GBR. Coral cover declined to 30.0

Many species move among habitats to feed, shelter, reproduce, and disperse, linking ecosystems across land and seascapes. In coastal ecosystems, fish movements throughout ontogeny connect habitats to form interlinked seascapes. The concepts of nursery habitats and ontogenetic habitat shifts are widely accepted, but how seascape features shape habitat use across coastal ecosystems during different life stages remains unclear. To address this, we surveyed fish from six habitat types with stereo-remote underwater video stations to examine how the spatial attributes of coastal ecosystems influence habitat use. Surveys were completed four times over two years and encompassed 180 sites along 200 km of the inshore Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Key fisheries taxa, including species of Lutjanus, Lethrinus, and Choerodon, exhibited clear ontogenetic shifts, moving from mangroves and back-reef habitats to coral reefs at larger body sizes. Variation in the spatial properties of coastal seascapes, principally the composition and configuration of habitats, was tightly linked to changes in the distribution and abundance of these species at different sizes. These strong seascape effects were evident across all habitats and sizes examined and were consistently more important than variation in habitat cover. Our findings strongly support the seascape nursery concept, demonstrating how the spatial diversity, composition and configuration of habitats can influence the abundance and distribution of coastal fishes and that interconnected habitats are critical for species undergoing ontogenetic shifts. Implementing effective management strategies for these species and their habitats will require protecting seascape features such as high habitat diversity and conserving well-connected patches.

Wrasses (family Labridae) occupy a wide range of ecological niches, and although they are ubiquitous, their partitioning over large spatial and temporal scales is poorly understood. In this study, we surveyed the reef slope of 71 reefs between 9°S and 24°S along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) to examine wrasse assemblages and benthic habitat associations. Seventy-two wrasse species from 24 genera were recorded. Most were widely distributed but relatively rare, with only a few exhibiting particularly high abundances or restricted distributions. Twenty-seven species accounted for 97

Coral reef habitats and associated fish communities can be severely impacted by physical disturbances such as storms and cyclones, which can dramatically reduce live coral cover. However, rapid coral recolonisation and growth can lead to short-term recovery of both coral and fish assemblages. Here we examine the impact of a category 4 cyclone at the Whitsunday Islands (Cyclone Debbie in 2017). Changes in hard coral cover and the density, species richness and species composition of butterflyfishes and damselfishes were assessed over a 12-year period: 3 surveys prior to the cyclone (2012, 2014 and 2016), two surveys 8-19 months after (2017 and 2018) and another two surveys 5-6 years later (2022 and 2023). The percent cover of complex corals and massive/encrusting corals declined by 69% and 37% respectively between the pre-cyclone period and the two 8-19 months after the cyclone, with no significant recovery 5-6 years later. Density and species richness of both butterflyfishes and damselfishes declined significantly immediately after the cyclone, and these declines continued 5-6 years on. There was a shift in species composition in both fish families from a dominance of coral dependent species prior to the cyclone towards a dominance of macroalgal and rubble associated species. Species-level patterns were examined for the most abundant butterflyfish and damselfish species surveyed, and all but one species suffered long-term declines in density ranging from 31% to 85% over the period 2016-2023. The immediate and long-term declines included fishes both reliant and not reliant on live coral for habitat/food. Our study indicates that severe tropical cyclones can lead to short- and long-term declines in coral and fish assemblages, and rapid recovery should not be assumed. Given the potential for an increase in the frequency of severe cyclones with climate change, continued long-term monitoring is essential to examine the cumulative decadal effects of these disturbances.

While biological control (or biocontrol) is an established method for managing pest species in terrestrial systems, few successful applications have been reported for marine environments. Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS, Acanthaster ssp.) are regarded as a pest species across the Indo-Pacific, where they are voracious predators of corals and represent one of the largest causes of coral mortality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The role of reef fish in moderating outbreaks of CoTS through biocontrol has recently become more widely recognized. Here we have incorporated reef fish into a meta-community model of the GBR to demonstrate the critical role that marine reserves and other fisheries regulations have had in limiting the prevalence of CoTS outbreaks and maintaining the resilience of the GBR ecosystem. Our results suggest that without these interventions, the GBR would have already passed a major tipping point to a new state characterized by few predatory fish, continuous CoTS outbreaks and substantially lower coral cover. Model projections to 2050 demonstrate the importance of maintaining protection into the future and suggest that additional gains can be made over the next decade by continuing to manually control CoTS numbers. However, beyond 2040, the escalating impacts of climate change and the underlying resilience of CoTS populations will limit the effectiveness of interventions based on biocontrol.

In the Anthropocene, understanding and managing ecological communities requires the characterization of natural spatiotemporal ecosystem dynamics. Complex ecosystems may appear chaotic and unstructured, making long-term monitoring programs with hierarchical sampling designs ideal for investigating ecological patterns at multiple scales. Here, we use a dataset spanning the entire Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and multiple decades to determine the spatial patterns of distribution and abundance, and how these change through time, in 233 reef-associated fish species. Community composition was strongly structured by position across the continental shelf, with distinct inner and outer shelf assemblages. Latitudinal differences were smaller, except for the distinctive assemblages of the southernmost Swain and Capricorn-Bunker regions. GBR-wide summaries of total density and species richness did not show directional shifts, and it was only after analyzing these metrics at the subregional scale that a wider range of temporal oscillations was identified, indicating that responses of fish assemblages to perturbations require examination of smaller than GBR scales. Within most subregions (65%), fish species composition has undergone a clear and ongoing directional shift away from the community identified in the 1990s. These changes were generally due to a reduction in the numbers of coral-dependent species and an increased dominance of grazers and generalists. Among the 233 species, there have been more "winners" than "losers" across the whole GBR, but this masks a tendency for inner shelf reefs of the central GBR to have a dominance of "losers" over time. Reef fish assemblages on the GBR are dynamic and show clear recovery potential from disturbance events. Despite some pervasive community-level shifts in the last decades, the clear biogeographic characteristics of each subregion remain intact. We pose the question of whether it is reasonable to expect these highly dynamic assemblages to reach a relatively stable "climax community," and posit that the answer is scale-dependent and, on the GBR, is currently resolved at the subregional scale, which is the scale at which most stakeholders and decision-makers operate.

Escalating climate and anthropogenic disturbances draw into question how stable large-scale patterns in biological diversity are in the Anthropocene. Here, we analyse how patterns of reef fish diversity have changed from 1995 to 2022 by examining local diversity and species dissimilarity along a large latitudinal gradient of the Great Barrier Reef and to what extent this correlates with changes in coral cover and coral composition. We find that reef fish species richness followed the expected latitudinal diversity pattern (i.e., greater species richness toward lower latitudes), yet has undergone significant change across space and time. We find declines in species richness at lower latitudes in recent periods but high variability at higher latitudes. Reef fish turnover continuously increased over time at all latitudes and did not show evidence of a return. Altered diversity patterns are characterised by heterogeneous changes in reef fish trophic groups across the latitudinal gradient. Shifts in coral composition correlate more strongly with reef fish diversity changes than fluctuations in coral cover. Our findings provide insight into the extent to which classic macroecological patterns are maintained in the Anthropocene, ultimately questioning whether these patterns are decoupling from their original underlying drivers.

The fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event (GCBE) reached the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in the Austral summer of 2023/24 and caused substantial coral mortality in the Cooktown-Lizard Island sector of the GBR. Thermal stress in this sector ranged from 5.9 to 8.2 °C-weeks (Degree Heating Weeks—DHW) derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch products, resulting in a 38.6

Marine and estuarine habitat degradation threatens ecosystem function and delivery of ecosystem services. An increasing number of management interventions aiming to improve ecological condition within impacted marine and estuarine habitats are being implemented. Monitoring the ecological outcomes of management interventions to evaluate their effectiveness supports adaptive management. However, the lack of a standardised set of indicators has impeded reliable assessment and knowledge sharing. The objective of this research project is to develop a cross-ecosystem standardised indicator framework to assess changes in benthic habitat conditions. The rapid Marine and Estuarine Condition Assessment Tool (MarECAT) was developed for Queensland, Australia; however, it can be applied elsewhere. A literature review was undertaken to identify indicators and metrics for habitat condition assessment that were reviewed by subject matter experts through a series of Technical Group meetings. Three indicator groups were identified based on the presence or absence of structural macrobiota attributes (i.e., macroflora, macrofauna, and substrate-dominated). The panel of experts endorsed a list of 42 condition indicators with associated metrics representing all ecosystem components, enabling a comprehensive assessment of habitat condition for a rapid assessment tool. A level of confidence nominated by practitioners was allocated to each condition indicator metric to inform the interpretation of assessments. Another outcome of the expert workshops was the endorsement of 10 threat indicators representing key pressures in marine and estuarine habitats, along with a specific assessment scale. The scoring method developed for the MarECAT will facilitate reliable assessment of management intervention outcomes and implementation of adaptive management to improve project success.

Anthropogenic pressure is increasing the variety and frequency of environmental disturbance events, limiting recovery and leading to long-term declines in wild plant and animal populations. Coral reefs and associated fish assemblages are inherently dynamic due to their susceptibility to a host of disturbances, but regional-scale nuances in the drivers of long-term change frequently remain poorly resolved. Here, we examine the effects of multiple potential drivers of change in coral reef fish assemblages across 4 inshore regions of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP), Australia, over 12-14 years (2007-2021). Each region had a unique disturbance history, in conjunction with long-term changes in physical and habitat variables. Phases of recovery were apparent in the years between disturbance events at all locations, but these were not long enough to prevent substantial declines in reef fish density (by 33%-72%) and species richness (by 41%-75%) throughout the study period. The main drivers of change in fish assemblages varied among regions; however, the most rapid changes followed cyclone and flood events. Limited recovery periods resulted in temporal shifts in fish species composition from typically coral-associated to algae-associated. Most trophic groups declined in density except farmers, grazers, omnivores and parrotfish. No-take marine reserves (NTMRs) had small and inconsistent effects on total fish assemblages, but delivered benefits for fishery-targeted piscivores. Our findings suggest that coral reef responses to local stressors and cumulative escalating climate change impacts are highly variable at regional scales, and that small NTMRs are unlikely to mitigate the impacts of increasingly frequent climatic disturbances. Nearshore coral reefs worldwide are high-value habitats that are either already degraded or vulnerable to degradation and the loss of important fish groups. Global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions must be coupled with effective local management that can support the functioning and adaptive capacity of coral reefs.

Resilience-based management is essential to protect ecosystems in the Anthropocene. Unlike large-scale climate threats to Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals, outbreaks of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS; Acanthaster cf. solaris) can be directly managed through targeted culling. Here, we evaluate the outcomes of a decade of strategic COTS management in suppressing outbreaks and protecting corals during the 4th COTS outbreak wave at reef and regional scales (sectors). We compare COTS density and coral cover dynamics during the 3rd and 4th outbreak waves. During the 4th outbreak wave, sectors that received limited to no culling had sustained COTS outbreaks causing significant coral losses. In contrast, in sectors that received timely and sufficient cull effort, coral cover increased substantially, and outbreaks were suppressed with COTS densities up to six-fold lower than in the 3rd outbreak wave. In the Townsville sector for example, despite exposure to comparable disturbance regimes during the 4th outbreak wave, effective outbreak suppression coincided with relative increases in sector-wide coral cover (44%), versus significant coral cover declines (37%) during the 3rd outbreak wave. Importantly, these estimated increases span entire sectors, not just reefs with active COTS control. Outbreaking reefs with higher levels of culling had net increases in coral cover, while the rate of coral loss was more than halved on reefs with lower levels of cull effort. Our results also indicate that outbreak wave progression to adjoining sectors has been delayed, probably via suppression of COTS larval supply. Our findings provide compelling evidence that proactive, targeted, and sustained COTS management can effectively suppress COTS outbreaks and deliver coral growth and recovery benefits at reef and sector-wide scales. The clear coral protection outcomes demonstrate the value of targeted manual culling as both a scalable intervention to mitigate COTS outbreaks, and a potent resilience-based management tool to “buy time” for coral reefs, protecting reef ecosystem functions and biodiversity as the climate changes.

Climate-driven alterations to disturbance regimes are increasingly disrupting patterns of recovery in many biomes. Here, we examine the impact of disturbance and subsequent level of recovery in live hard coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) across the last three decades. We demonstrate that a preexisting pattern of infrequent disturbances of limited spatial extent has changed to larger and more frequent disturbances, dominated by marine heatwaves and severe tropical cyclones. We detected an increase in the impact (measured as coral loss) across 265 individual disturbance impacts on 131 reefs in a 36-year dataset (1985-2022). Additionally, the number of survey reefs impacted by disturbance has increased each decade from 6% in the 1980s to 44% in the 2010s, as has the frequency of mass coral bleaching across the GBR, which has increased between 19% and 28% per year, and cyclones (3%-5% per year), resulting in less time for recovery. Of the 265 disturbance impacts we recorded, complete recovery to the highest levels of coral cover recorded earlier in this study (the "historical benchmark") occurred only 62 (23%) times. Of the 23% of disturbance impacts that resulted in complete recovery to historical benchmarks, 34/62 recovered to their benchmark in 2021 or 2022. Complete recovery was more likely when the historical benchmark was <25% live hard coral cover. The lack of recovery was attributed to recovery time windows becoming shorter due to increases in the frequency of cyclones and of thermal stress events that result in mass coral bleaching episodes. These results confirm that climate change is contributing to ecosystem-wide changes in the ability of coral reefs to recover.

Cycles of disturbance and recovery govern the temporal dynamics of living coral cover on coral reefs. Monitoring the state of the Great Barrier Reef at regional and individual reef scales has been ongoing by the Long-Term Monitoring Program at the Australian Institute of Marine Science since 1986. After a period of relative stability between 1986 and 2010, the latest decade of surveys recorded increased frequency of intense, large-scale disturbance events and coral cover has reached unprecedented lows and highs in each region. Following the consecutive bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, widespread recovery occurred on the northern and central Great Barrier Reef between 2017 and 2022, which was halted in 2023. An examination of the effects of the 2022 bleaching event revealed that the direct and indirect impacts of this event, along with ongoing crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, notable incidences of coral disease, and the passage of a tropical cyclone all contributed to the most recent coral cover changes across the Great Barrier Reef. The prognosis for future disturbances suggests increasing and longer-lasting marine heatwaves, continuing severe tropical cyclones and the ongoing risk of outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish. Although the observed capacity for recovery is a cause for cautious optimism for the overall state of the Great Barrier Reef, there is increasing concern for its ability to continue to bounce back in the face of escalating climatic pressure.

AimIdentifying the maximum coral cover that a coral community can sustain (i.e., its 'upper limit') is important for predicting community dynamics and improving management strategies. Here, we quantify the relationship between estimated upper limits and key environmental factors on coral reefs: hard substrate availability, temperature and water clarity.LocationGreat Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia (over 1400 km).Time Period1990 to 2022.Major Taxa StudiedScleractinian corals.MethodsWe used 32 years of data on coral cover around reef perimeters. Each reef was divided into four wave-exposure habitats depending on prevailing wind conditions. For each site, we determined if hard coral cover had reached a plateau or upper limit. Next, we extracted existing estimates of hard substrate availability, modelled water temperature and Secchi depth. Then, we quantified the relationship between these environmental variables and the upper limits.ResultsWe found varying upper limits across the GBR, with a median of 33% coral cover and only 17% of the estimated upper limits exceeded 50% coral cover. Upper limits increased towards the southern reefs. Our results show that upper limits increased with increasing hard substrate availability and decreased with temperature and, to a lesser extent, with water clarity.Main ConclusionsThe upper limits estimated in this study are much lower than what is commonly assumed when modelling ecological dynamics, most likely resulting in predicted recovery rates being inappropriately high. Although hard substrate ultimately restricted upper limits, there are mechanisms constraining the proportion of hard substrate that is covered by hard corals. The negative relationship between temperature and upper limits cannot be explained by changes in macroalgal abundance but may be related to changes in species composition. The quantitative relationships between the upper limits of coral cover and environmental variables will provide critical information to prioritise sites for management interventions.

Small volumes of water containing environmental DNA (eDNA) are increasingly combined with metabarcoding to generate biodiversity data for specific fractions of marine flora and fauna. To date, however, few studies have utilized this technique to assess how well it captures seasonal patterns in coral reef communities or how environmental and methodological factors influence eDNA detections. In our study, we used three eDNA metabarcoding assays primarily targeting bony fish and elasmobranchs, as well as cnidarians and sponges (Cnidaria/Porifera) combined with monthly seawater sampling to (1) investigate temporal variation in taxonomic detections and (2) statistically test the potential effect of season, sea surface temperature, timing of spawning (using moon phase as a proxy), and sample preservation on taxon detection across a 12-month period in a model coral reef system (Big Vicki’s Reef, Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia). Species-level fish and genus-level scleractinian coral detections from standardized visual surveys conducted at the same coral reef, in addition to a curated list of all known fishes recorded from the more expansive coral reef system across 46 years, were used to validate eDNA detections. Our eDNA dataset indicated that the number of taxa detected were consistently highest in September for fish, and in February followed by September for Cnidaria/Porifera. Conversely, detections were lowest in June and July for all taxa. Some, but not all, of the environmental and methodological variables explained the observed temporal pattern in biological communities or systematic changes in the number of taxa, and in some cases, this effect was taxon dependent. Our study also highlights the significance of timing in eDNA biodiversity surveys conducted on tropical coral reefs in the Southern Hemisphere. To obtain the most meaningful estimates of site diversity, we recommend focusing sampling efforts between early spring and early autumn. Alternatively, allocating an entire year to sampling would better capture seasonal variation and provide more comprehensive insights into coral reef biodiversity.

Species abundance, diversity and community assemblage structure are determined by multiple physical, habitat and management drivers that operate across multiple spatial scales. Here we used a multi-scale coral reef monitoring dataset to examine regional and local differences in the abundance, species richness and composition of fish assemblages in no-take marine reserve (NTMR) and fished zones at four island groups in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia. We applied boosted regression trees to quantify the influence of 20 potential drivers on the coral reef fish assemblages. Reefs in two locations, Magnetic Island and the Keppel Islands, had distinctive fish assemblages and low species richness, while the Palm and Whitsunday Islands had similar species composition and higher species richness. Overall, our analyses identified several important physical (temperature, wave exposure) and biological (coral, turf, macroalgal and unconsolidated substratum cover) drivers of inshore reef fish communities, some of which are being altered by human activities. Of these, sea surface temperature (SST) was more influential at large scales, while wave exposure was important both within and between island groups. Species richness declined with increasing macroalgal cover and exposure to cyclones, and increased with SST. Species composition was most strongly influenced by mean SST and percent cover of macroalgae. There was substantial regional variation in the local drivers of spatial patterns. Although NTMR zoning influenced total fish density in some regions, it had negligible effects on fish species richness, composition and trophic structure because of the relatively small number of species targeted by the fishery. These findings show that inshore reef fishes are directly influenced by disturbances typical of the nearshore Great Barrier Reef, highlighting the need to complement global action on climate change with more targeted localised efforts to maintain or improve the condition of coral reef habitats.

Partially protected areas are now the dominant global form of spatial management aimed at preserving ecosystem integrity and managing human use. However, most evaluations of their efficacy use only a narrow set of conservation indicators that reflect a fraction of ways in which protection can succeed or fail. In this paper, we examine three case studies of partially protected coral reef fishery systems to evaluate benefits and risks of their use as a management tool. We use data from community-based management arrangements in three Pacific Island countries to demonstrate three vignettes of how partial protection can boost fisheries production, enhance the ease with which fishers catch their prey, and alter the composition of fisheries yields. These changes in fisheries productivity, catchability, and vulnerability under partial protection carry substantial benefits for fishers. However, they also carry significant risks for ecosystems and fisheries livelihoods unless adaptively managed so as to confer the short to medium term benefits in resource performance without risking longer term sustainability.

Indonesian coral reefs are under pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, the use of destructive fishing practices, land-based pollution, coastal development and climate change. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are necessary to allow habitat recovery and fish stock replenishment. Through the United States Agency for International Development Sustainable Ecosystems Advanced Project (2016-2021), Indonesia worked to improve fisheries productivity and sustainable livelihoods within the three provinces of Maluku, North Maluku and West Papua, where 13 new coral reef MPAs were designed for multiple use, with a zoning system to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries. At the time of writing in mid-2021, regulations to prohibit fishing within the no-take areas (NTAs) were not yet implemented. This paper presents baseline and trends in percent coral cover and reef fish density and biomass in the MPAs. In 2020, overall coral cover had increased from 42% to 45% across all MPAs. The average target fish biomass across all NTAs had declined from 1709 ( +/- 176 SE) kg per hectare in 2017 to 884 ( +/- 76 SE) kg per hectare in 2020, representing a significant decline of about 48%. Large and significant declines in many target fish families across multiple MPAs are reflective of unsustainable levels of exploitation. It is evident that management plans need to be implemented with adequate enforcement and stakeholder engagement to stem the decline of target species and to secure livelihoods for local fishing communities.