Posted on 08/15/2003 9:42:55 AM PDT by cogitator
Pollution, overfishing and climate change have severely damaged one-third of the world's coral reefs and could destroy another third in the next 30 years, scientists warned Thursday.
"There are no pristine reefs left," the researchers reported in the journal Science. They predicted that without "radical changes" in efforts to save the world's reefs, "close to 60 percent of them could be lost by 2030."
The report -- based on hundreds of historical documents, fishing records and scientific studies using sources as diverse as early ship's logs to modern environmental surveys -- is the most comprehensive assessment of coral reef health ever made. It also is the most dire.
"There is very grave concern that the reefs are going to get through this," said John Pandolfi, of the Smithsonian Institution, one of dozens of research organizations participating in the studies.
The research covers 14 major reef systems in all of the world's oceans, but the situation may be most urgent in the Caribbean, where a massive, regionwide decline has reduced the coral cover of reefs by 80 percent over the last 30 years. Researchers say Caribbean coral losses are so severe that the reefs' ability to recover may be "irretrievably damaged."
"In regions where the process is most advanced, such as Jamaica, the corals are either dead or dying, the fish are tiny, few other organisms exist and the formerly vibrant reef structure is coated with algae," said University of Florida zoologist Karen Bjorndal.
"The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is said to be largely pristine, but it's actually a third of the way toward ecological extinction," she said.
In reviewing reports on coral reef health that go back hundreds of years, the more than 30 researchers involved in the assessment say it is clear that human activity -- shipping, fishing and dredging -- has always had detrimental effects on the world's reefs.
"Humans have never been innate conservationists," said Richard Cooke, archaeologist at the Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama. "But a point of no return now looms so large for coral reefs that only draconian measures against human exploitation will ensure the survival of these fragile ecosystems into the next decade."
In recent decades, human impact has accelerated through increased commercial fishing, coral collecting, chemical pollution, urban runoff and recreational activities. Sometimes the human role in reef destruction is hard to trace.
In a separate report Thursday, scientists linked the mysterious decline of corals in Indonesia's Mentawai Islands in 1997 to massive wildfires that ravaged the region's tropical forests that year. Soot from the fires triggered a red tide outbreak, which in turn, suffocated the reefs.
Until recently, human impact has tended to be local or regional in scope. But Pandolfi said global events -- climate change and worldwide increases in greenhouse gases -- are now accelerating the loss of reefs. The cumulative effects -- loss of habitat for fish, disrupted food chains and loss of biological diversity -- have been devastating, he said.
"It's a little like what happens when someone who is already sick gets the flu," he said. "A healthy person might be in bed for a few days and then recover. A person who is already sick is more likely to die."
Scientists say the evidence that climate change is now contributing to coral reef die-offs is "incontrovertible." Tropical corals live for most of their lives in waters that are only a few degrees below levels that are lethal. Prolonged increases in ocean temperatures push them over the edge. Average global temperatures have been increasing gradually for the last 30 years, but the slow upward trend is punctuated by regional heat waves that can have more dramatic effects.
In the face of such pressures, scientists warn that "local successes in protecting coral reefs over the past 30 years have failed to reverse regional declines." Although reefs grow slowly, some will probably adapt to changing conditions. But comprehensive protection measures will be needed to keep many of them alive, the scientists said.
The United States and Australia have led the way in creating coral reef preserves where fishing, dredging and other harmful activities are prohibited. But even those countries have set aside only about 5 percent of the reef area that needs to be protected, Pandolfi said.
Many reefs, like those off both coasts of Central America, overlap national boundaries and will require multinational efforts to protect them, he said. "We are going to need a massive increase in international cooperation to have any chance of turning this around," he added.
Was searching through a EO database and saw your post and this EO. I haven't read it.
Umm, so Mother Nature had a wildfire which led to a red tide, which suffocated the reef. Why is this the fault of humans?
The Holy EnviroTrinity.
I've never understood why people do that. I rarely touch anything when I dive and when I do, I try to keep my contact minimal if it is on the coral (one finger, for example to keep a little surge of current from bashing me into the reef for example). Sometimes it's impossible of course, but I have never even considered smashing the coral to get a souvenir. I take my camera. All my souvenirs either come as photos or memories (later translated to dreams of being underwater in my sleep). I just can't get my mind around people intentionally busting up the reef for a paperweight or trophy. It's there living anytime you want to see it...
I think we know more now, and the causes are more severe now.
This is an EXCELLENT article; if you're interested, I hope you will enjoy reading it, even though the title is a bit overblown:
Chilling prognosis from the deep: Our Oceans are Dying
The exchange with Congressman Dante Fascell (about 3/4 of the way down) is highly illuminating.
Hurricanes happen, and reefs get damaged, but if they reefs are healthy, they have less damage and they recover quickly. There are some rapidly growing corals like staghorn that take the brunt of hurricane wave damage by breaking up. If the staghorn is gone, then other corals get hit instead. (Jamaica is a mess anyway; it's probably the most poverty-stricken island country in the Caribbean after Haiti.)
If the corals go out, something else will come along to fill that ecological niche.
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