A Study of the Effects of the 2004 Tsunami on Coral Reefs and Fisheries of the Indian Ocean

This thesis serves as a broad-scale review of the effects of the tsunami on the coral reefs and the fisheries of the affected Indian Ocean region. The main goals were to 1) use my research from a recolonization project completed May 2004 as a basis for predictiverecovery models for the coral reefs, 2) review and summarize the newly available literature of the tsunami effects on coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and 3) predict the future of the Indian Ocean fisheries based on the review of the tsunami effects on human and fishery communities, using selected species as models. It was found that although the coral reefs in the Indian Ocean were already in a state of decline, the effects of the December 2004 tsunami was not as catastrophic as originally thought. With the fisheries devastated, coral reefs of the Indian Ocean have an opportunity to naturally recover without human interference