LONDON — A growing human population is pushing coral reefs in
the Caribbean to breaking point and saving them will require a new, larger-scale
approach, researchers said on Tuesday.
Coral reefs have long been under threat but pinpointing
whether overfishing, climate change or development is the main culprit has
proved both contentious and difficult, said Camilo Mora, a marine biologist at
Dalhousie University in Canada.
In their study, researchers monitored coral reefs in 322
sites across 13 countries throughout the Caribbean and analyzed databases on
fishing, sedimentation and population growth.
The team, which also looked at agricultural land use,
temperature, hurricanes, coral disease and richness of the reefs, determined
that coastal development was most harmful.
"The study showed clearly that the number of people living in
close proximity to coral reefs is the main driver of mortality of corals," the
researchers said in the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the
Royal Society.
More people means more of everything that damages coral
reefs, including fishing, sewage, coastal construction and human activities that
contribute to warming oceans.
Coral reefs, delicate undersea structures resembling rocky
gardens that are made by tiny animals called coral polyps, are important
nurseries and shelters for fish and other sea life.
They are also considered valuable protection for coastlines
from high seas, a critical source of food for millions of people, important for
tourism and a potential storehouse of medicines for cancer and other diseases.
But researchers and environmental groups have warned that
coral reefs worldwide could be destroyed unless governments urgently change how
they manage the marine ecosystem.
"This new study moves from the traditional localized study of
threats to a region-wide scale," Mora and colleagues wrote.
The coral reef is critical to the Caribbean economy, generating $4 billion
each year in trade for the fishing and tourism industries, as well as jobs for
government workers responsible for monitoring the reefs, Mora said.
