Coral Reefs Disappearing Faster Than Thought

Coral reefs in the central and western Pacific are disappearing twice as fast as rainforests are on land–faster than was previously thought, a new study says.

The reefs in this region, called the Indo-Pacific, are disappearing at a rate of 1 percent per year–nearly 600 square miles of reef have disappeared per year since the late 1960s, researchers found.

The Indo-Pacific contains 75 percent of the world's coral reefs, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the largest single structure built by living organisms (it can be seen from space), and has the highest coral diversity in the world.

The pattern of loss across the entire study area indicates that coral loss is a global phenomenon, likely brought on by large-scale stressors such as climate change, coral disease, predators, nutrient pollution and overfishing.

While reefs cover less than 1 percent of the ocean globally, they are an integral part of coastal communities because of their high biodiversity and the economic benefits they provide in tourism and protection of coastal land from storms.


SOURCE:
Live Science

This is very disturbing.

Coral represent not only, as was said, an important economic role but a very important
role in the ocean and pyramid of life in general.

While there are obviously some natural causes for this, like normal predators
and disease, AICC, overfishing and the moving in of invasive species because of
the latter two are our own doing.

We as a species really need to learn to take better care of our planet, not just to
protect the life that lives on it, but to protect ourselves as well, since we don't
have anywhere to go if things turn bad quickly.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 8/8/2007 by iori_komei]

Americans are going to learn one day that being ignorant of facts doesn't make it OK to violate them. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. The reef are very important, no one can emphasize this enough.

Originally posted by discomfit
Americans are going to learn one day that being ignorant of facts doesn't make it OK to violate them. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. The reef are very important, no one can emphasize this enough.

USA is not the only contributer. Nor are they drastically more so then some of the other industrial nations.

Perhaps one day you will drop your ignorance as well.

Originally posted by Cloak and Dagger
USA is not the only contributer. Nor are they drastically more so then some of the other industrial nations.

America is the single largest producer of GHG's, that is we produce more per capita/person
than any other country, and many parts of Europe produce a great amount less
than we do.

The real two other culprits are India and PRChina, the latter more than the first.

Maybe it's dissapearing so fast because companys are harvesting it. I have seen several products that claim the use of coral calcium as the main component. They started doing it in Japan then marketed it to the USA and Mexico(probably more countrys but thats where I have seen it in person).

Google search:Japanese coral tablets

I can't belive that companys havent started raping the coral beds in other areas of the world besides near Okinawa(the claimed source for many of the coral tablets).


Pollution can't be helping either though.