coral reef tagged posts

The coral reefs and gin-clear waters off the coast of Cuba offer some of the best diving in the Caribbean and some of the best-preserved reefs on earth. And if travel restrictions on U.S. tourism to Cuba are ever lifted, the remote Peninsula of Guanahacabibes could well become a popular destination for American divers.

The land and marine reserve encompasses some 200 square miles (518 square kilometres) on Cuba’s westernmost tip about 135 miles (217 kilometres) northwest of Havana. It juts into the Caribbean, with protected forests on land, aquamarine waters lapping at white sand beaches and pristine coral beds teeming with a colorful variety of fish just offshore.

In some ways, the peninsula is just as frozen in time as other aspects of life in Cuba, where 50-year-old cars are common and...

Senator Loren Legarda called for the establishment of a comprehensive map of coral resources nationwide to help leaders and lawmakers arrive at a policy for food security in the Philippines.

An updated comprehensive mapping of the country’s coral reef resources should be done by the departments of agriculture; environment and natural resources; and science and technology, and the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines, said Legarda, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. She did not mention the project cost.

“We need coordinated efforts towards the rehabilitation and protection of our reefs, as well as our mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and countless other ecosystems,” Legarda said, adding the maps should indicate the state of health ...

The Great Barrier Reef is in the worst state it’s been in since records began and it will be ‘pretty ugly’ within 40 years, Australian scientists say. Experts claim the world’s largest reef is facing threats from coastal development, such as a massive port-related dredging project at Abbot Point, the most northerly deepwater coal port of Australia, situated 25 kilometres north of Bowen, Queensland. Farm run-off and poor water quality are also endangering the reef, scientists say.

A Senate committee is investigating how the Australian and Queensland governments have managed the reef, ahead of a UNESCO decision next year about whether to list it as a World Heritage site in danger.

The Australian Coral Reef Society – the oldest organisation in the world that studies reefs – says coral cover...

The fish that live off the Malay Archipelago, between Southeast Asia and Australia, are among the most diverse in the world. Now researchers are reporting that the area owes its diversity to the stability of coral reefs over the past three million years. The reefs provided fish a safe home and the means to diversify and evolve into new species, said Peter F. Cowman, an evolutionary biologist at Yale and an author of the new research, which appears in the journal Science.

“It really drives home the fact that the past shapes the present,” he said.

Using information from underwater sediment, the scientists were able to estimate changes in surface temperatures over time. From that information, they inferred where coral reefs were and how stable they were over time...

Although some scientists suggest that coral reefs are headed for certain doom, a new study by University of Florida and Caribbean researchers indicates even damaged reefs can recover. In a 13-year study in the Cayman Islands, warm ocean temperatures led to bleaching and infectious disease that reduced live coral cover by more than 40 percent between 1999 and 2004. But seven years later, the amount of live coral on the reefs, the density of young colonies critical to the reefs’ future health, and the overall size of corals all had returned to the 1999 state, the study showed.

Much of the reef surrounding Little Cayman Island is protected, so damage from fishing, anchoring and some other human activities is minimized, said UF researcher Chuck Jacoby, who helped with the study.

“Nevertheless...