Janet Silvera, Senior Tourism Writer

Caribbean coral reefs have reportedly suffered an 80 per cent decline in cover over the last three decades. - photo by krishna desai

WESTERN BUREAU:

Delegates attending the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Florida last week were jolted by the bleak revelation that one-third of all reef-building coral species face extinction.

The latest findings were released to some 2,500 international scientists, policymakers, managers, and conservationists from approximately 150 countries in attendance at the conference.

In a release to The Gleaner, the ICRS said that the 39 authors of the study assessed 845 coral-reef species against the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List criteria. The authors analysed characteristics, such as population range and size, life history traits, susceptibility to threats and estimations of regional coral cover loss.

The authors found that the Coral Triangle of Indonesia, Malaysia and other Pacific island nations has the highest proportion of vulnerable coral species. Lead author Dr Kent Carpenter warned that it is not coral alone which is under threat.

Animals die

"When coral die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems," he said.

Carpenter and his team's findings were corroborated by Rich Aronson, Dauphin Island Research Lab, University of South Alabama, who said that in the next few decades, coral bleaching will occur every two to three years and maybe every year.

"This is troubling because reefs protect tropical shorelines, and without that protection, people in coastal communities are going to suffer from pounding waves, and beaches, houses and farms are going to wash away,"said Carpenter.

He noted that reefs also would not be able to keep up with rising sea levels, which are predicted to increase by seven to 19 inches in the next 100 years. As a result, reefs will drown and stop growing.

"We need to protect coral from local threats, so they can survive global issues like climate changes.

"There is a tendency to give up, and there is compassion fatigue. But reefs feed half a billion people around the world, so this is about our food security," the scientist stated.

Predictions

The report comes on the heels of predictions of marine scientists who said that by 2015, coral-reef degradation could result in annual losses of US$100 million ($7.2 billion) to $300 million ($21 billion) to the Caribbean tourist industry.

Presenting some alarming statistics at the 10th annual Sustainable Tourism Conference in May, director of the conservation programmes, Coral Reef Alliance, Rick MacPherson, said the region's reefs were at great risk, and almost two-thirds of them were under threat.

"Caribbean reefs have suffered an 80 per cent decline in cover during the past three decades, while 80 to 90 per cent of elkhorn and staghorn coral is gone," he revealed.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com