Press Release: Major Study Highlights Threat to Caribbean’s Coral Reefs and Opportunity for Saving Them

Written by:

Dr Owen Day (Director of Ecosystem-based Adaptation and the C-FISH Project, CARIBSAVE) and 

Dr Ulric Trotz (Deputy Director, Caribbean Community Climate Change Center)

(Excerpt from the press release...)

A BBC news item called “From Despair to Repair:  Dramatic Decline of Caribbean Corals Can Be Reversed” published last week is a resounding call to action for anyone interested in the future of the Caribbean . The news item was based on the publication of an important report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which found that most Caribbean coral reefs may disappear in the next 20 years, primarily due to the loss of grazers.

The report, Status and Trends of Caribbean Coral Reefs: 1970-2012, is the most detailed and comprehensive study of its kind published to date – the result of the work of 90 experts over the course of three years.

It contains the analysis of more than 35,000 surveys conducted at 90 Caribbean locations since 1970, including studies of corals, seaweeds, grazing sea urchins and fish.  This landmark report highlights the risks faced by coral reefs from climate change, but emphasized that restoring populations of parrotfish and reducing excessive coastal pollution would halt their decline and help them recover by making them more resilient to the impacts of climate change, such as mass bleaching events caused by rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification caused by the dissolution of carbon dioxide in the ocean.

Caribbean coral reefs, spanning a total of 38 countries, generate more than US$ 3 billion annually from tourism and fisheries.  Their loss would be disastrous for the economy of Caribbean islands, which rely on tourism as their main source of revenue.  Beach erosion would accelerate, as reefs would no longer be able to protect the shoreline from storms.  The Caribbean’s famous white sand, which is constantly being produced by living coral reefs, would also eventually disappear.   The loss of reefs would also mean the loss of countless jobs in fisheries, and further threaten the region’s already vulnerable food security.

“The rate at which the Caribbean corals have been declining is truly alarming,” said Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director of IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme. “But this study brings some very encouraging news: the fate of Caribbean corals is not beyond our control and there are some very concrete steps that we can take to help them recover.” The authors explain that climate change does pose a serious threat to coral reefs by making oceans more acidic and causing coral bleaching, it is the loss of parrotfish and sea urchins – the area’s two main grazers – that has, in fact, been the key reason of coral decline in the region.  Reefs protected from overfishing, as well as other threats such as excessive coastal pollution, tourism and coastal development, are more resilient to pressures from climate change, according to the authors.

(Continue to read the full press release on the recently relaunched C-FISH website here: http://c-fish.org/major-study-highlights-threat-to-caribbeans-coral-reefs-and-opportunity-for-saving-them/)