Loading ...Not a lot of details yet, but a press release by ReefCheck says that most Indo-Pacific reefs are recovering from a bleaching event from about 10 years ago.
In a presentation made at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Reef Check Executive Director Gregor Hodgson announced that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region have largely recovered from the devastating bleaching event that killed up to 90% of corals on some reefs in 1998. He reported that 10 years later, recovery has occurred more quickly and more completely than expected. Caribbean reefs, however, are losing about 3% living coral every four years due to a combination of human impacts.
In the hobby since 2001, and has seen all kinds of fads come and go. As he gets older, Jeff is developing more and more of a conscience towards environmental concerns, especially towards reefs. Currently, he writes from Ontario, Canada, but would rather be snorkeling on a reef.
i was in florida at the icrs and enjoyed gregs presentation on reef check data from indonesia… but before we sit back and relax, it’s also important to include a warning that was also part of his summary:
“Looking ahead several decades, a combination of threats – global warming, seawater acidification, and overfishing that are destabilizing coral reef ecosystems – raise the risk of extinction. While the Caribbean has the largest proportion of corals in high extinction risk categories, the Coral Triangle (which includes Indonesian reefs) has the highest proportion of species in all categories of elevated extinction risk.”
put another way, not all reefs measure their losses the same way… one square meter of indonesian reef has almost an order of magnitude more species than its caribbean counterpart…
No, I’m not saying we can sit back and relax. I posted the article for some positive news about the environment for a change.
Nice site, btw. I’m spending some time now checking it out.