Coral reef resource systems extend throughout the tropics and are exploited primarily by subsistence fishers, supplying food for millions of people. The magnitude of harvests per unit area taken from coralline shelves approximates those taken by trawlers from temperate shelves. In view of this, the current estimated potential global annual harvest from tropical reef fisheries of 6 million metric tonnes (t) is probably conservative. The relative composition of reef fishery catches changes in response to increasing effort, largely due to the different vulnerability of predatory and herbivorous species to fishing gears. In extreme cases, this change can result in dramatically reduced value of the total catch. Marine protected areas, either transitory or permanent, appear to offer the best prospects for management of reef fisheries, particularly if they are allied to community-based systems.