Caribbean coral reefs on the decline at 'an alarming' rate
Climate change is the main cause of coral decline
The existence of most Caribbean coral reefs is threatened over the
next 20 years without action to stem dramatic declines, conservationists
have warned.
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The regeneration of reef-grazing animal populations can save
reefs |
Caribbean corals have dived by more than 50 percent since the 1970s,
and are at just one sixth of their peak, mainly due to the loss of
parrot-fish and sea urchins which graze on the reefs, a new report
shows.
"The rate at which the Caribbean corals have been declining is truly
alarming," said Carl Lundin, director of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one of the groups behind a new study.
"But this study brings some very encouraging news: the fate of Caribbean
corals is not yet beyond our control and there are some very concrete
steps that we can take to make them recover," he said.
Measures such as restoring parrot-fish populations and protecting
reefs from overfishing and excessive coastal pollution could help reefs
recover. They would also make them more resilient to the impacts of
climate change, the experts said.
The report, which was put together by the Global Coral Reef
Monitoring Network and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
analysed more than 35,000 surveys at 90 Caribbean locations since 1970.
The experts said that while climate change - long thought to be the
main culprit in coral degradation - posed a serious threat by making the
seas more acidic and causing bleaching of corals, the main cause of
declines has been the loss of grazing creatures.
"Even if we could somehow make climate change disappear tomorrow,
these reefs would continue their decline," said Jeremy Jackson, lead
author of the report and IUCN's senior advisor on coral reefs.
- The Independent |
