Tela Bay Marine Wildlife Refuge Protected Area

The protected area’s legal protection began with a Municipal Ordinance issued on February 24, 2012, followed by its declaration as a Site of Importance for Wildlife. The Tela Coral Reef System was later established by Agreement No. 001-2014 (published in the Official Gazette “La Gaceta” on February 3, 2014) by the National Institute of Conservation and Forestry Development, Protected Areas and Wildlife (ICF).

The Tela Bay Marine Wildlife Refuge is located within the municipality of Tela, in the Department of Atlántida, and borders the Blanca Jeannette Kawas National Park (PNBJK) and Punta Izopo National Park, maintaining biological and ecological connectivity among the populations.

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At a biological level, the Marine Protected Area (MPA) safeguards a significant portion of the Mesoamerican Reef System (MAR). The reefs within the RVSMBT exhibit the highest coral cover in the country and are home to critically endangered species, such as elkhorn coral. Its coastal strip features lagoons and wetlands essential for the juvenile stages of commercially important fish. Tela Bay contains 27% of the country's fish aggregation sites. Despite its high coral cover, the MPA has a low biomass of herbivorous and commercially important fish.

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The Tela Bay Marine Wildlife Refuge (RVSMBT) boasts ecologically valuable reef banks that serve as refuges for key species, including the diadema sea urchin (Diadema antillarum), lettuce leaf coral (Agaricia sp.), and elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata). It is home to 94 species of bony fish across 18 families (Marks, 2018), some of which are commercially important, such as snappers, groupers, and grunts. Other species are ecologically important for their contribution to the ecosystem, such as herbivorous fish that control algal cover. Of the 94 species, several are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and are considered important for conservation due to declining abundance resulting from habitat loss or overexploitation.