Well this is certainly good news… This article below is from USA Today/Science.
(I also like the excuse of having some pretty blue vacation like water.. oh I would love to go on a 34343252 day get away to somewhere tropical ASAP!)
The world’s coral reefs don’t have it easy. Between pollution, fishing, and climate change, there have been several massive die-offs over the last ten years. The World Resources Institute estimates that we could lose 70% of the world’s coral reefs by 2050.
Fortunately, two new studies suggest that all hope is not lost. In 1998, a bleaching event
which is what happens when coral lose the algae they depend on for survival — killed 45% of the corals off Tanzania’s shores. But scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Society said this week that the coral is showing signs of recovery. Their findings were reported in the journal Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems.
Part of fhe Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia suffered a similar problem in 2006. But it too is improving, says researchers from the University of Queensland. Their study appeared in the journal PLOS One in April.
Both discoveries are unusual because corals tend to be sensitive to change and very slow growing.
Scientists attribute the reefs’ comebacks to several factors: better management of fisheries, improved monitoring of water quality, and protected conservation areas. What’s more, the reefs themselves seem to be adapting.
“It was surprising,” says biologist Tim McClanahan, one of the authors of the Tanzania study. “A lot of us were very depressed. We saw these reefs dying in front of us, and had a doom and gloom attitude.”
McClanahan says one major change in Tanzania was better management of the fisheries. Local fishermen switched to less harmful equipment, and commercial fishing was restricted in some areas.
Another interesting finding was that the reef was able to adapt to changes such as warmer water. McClanahan thinks that Tanzania’s diverse ocean environment with its many islands and lagoons could make for a hardier coral reef system. “The complicated coastline creates more habitats and different environments,” he says. “And those conditions seem to be better for coral survival.” Targeting conservation efforts to coral reefs in similar environments could help stem their demise, he adds.
