Reef wreckers
Reef wreckers
The world’s coral has been stripped of life.
Around 95 per cent o the world’s coral reefs have been damaged by over-fishing, dynamiting poisoning pollution or ships’ anchors, the first global survey has found.
Reef Check, which was carried out over the summer of 1997 at 300 sites in the Caribbean, the Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea, reveals that fish and shellfish that were once common on reefs have been deci¬mated on the majority of them. Gregor Hodgson, co-ordinator of Reef Check and a marine biologist at the Institute for Envi¬ronment and Sustainable Development at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, describes the results as extremely alarming. “Since 1990, divers have reported rapidly increasing damage to reefs all over the world, but there has been little supporting scientific data,” he says. “Now we have evidence that coral reefs are being plundered on a global basis.”
The survey was carried out by 750 volunteer divers and 100 marine biologists. On each reef, teams examined an area of coral larger than a football pitch. They checked num¬bers of 20 key species, such as grouper and lobsters, and looked for evidence of coral damage, from sewage pollution, cyanide fishing and anchor destruction.
The worst affected reefs were in the Indo-Pacific region, where demand for reef fish—a gourmet del¬icacy particularly in Hong Kong and southern China—has denuded reefs
of many large species. Napoleon or hump¬head wrasse were completely absent from 85 per cent of reefs in the region. Indeed, only 26 of these fish were found in all the Indo-Pacific reefs surveyed.
World-wide, there were no lobsters at 81 per cent of reefs. And 40 per cent of reefs had no grouper larger than 30 centimetres. “Coral reefs on a global basis have been pretty well wiped out as far as these high-value edible species go,” says Hodgson. “The results are very shocking.”
Fiona Holland, Hong Kong
New Scientist 25 October 1997
Vocabulary
Reef = banco di coralli
Poisoning = avvelenamento
Divers = subacquei (anche: palombari, sommozzatori)
Plundered = depredato
Sewage = fognatura
Wiped out = distrutti
Questions
How have coral reefs been damaged?
When and where was the survey carried out?
Why were very few humped wrasse found in the Indo-Pacific?
Why are the results alarming?
The world’s coral has been stripped of life.
Around 95 per cent o the world’s coral reefs have been damaged by over-fishing, dynamiting poisoning pollution or ships’ anchors, the first global survey has found.
Reef Check, which was carried out over the summer of 1997 at 300 sites in the Caribbean, the Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea, reveals that fish and shellfish that were once common on reefs have been deci¬mated on the majority of them. Gregor Hodgson, co-ordinator of Reef Check and a marine biologist at the Institute for Envi¬ronment and Sustainable Development at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, describes the results as extremely alarming. “Since 1990, divers have reported rapidly increasing damage to reefs all over the world, but there has been little supporting scientific data,” he says. “Now we have evidence that coral reefs are being plundered on a global basis.”
The survey was carried out by 750 volunteer divers and 100 marine biologists. On each reef, teams examined an area of coral larger than a football pitch. They checked num¬bers of 20 key species, such as grouper and lobsters, and looked for evidence of coral damage, from sewage pollution, cyanide fishing and anchor destruction.
The worst affected reefs were in the Indo-Pacific region, where demand for reef fish—a gourmet del¬icacy particularly in Hong Kong and southern China—has denuded reefs
of many large species. Napoleon or hump¬head wrasse were completely absent from 85 per cent of reefs in the region. Indeed, only 26 of these fish were found in all the Indo-Pacific reefs surveyed.
World-wide, there were no lobsters at 81 per cent of reefs. And 40 per cent of reefs had no grouper larger than 30 centimetres. “Coral reefs on a global basis have been pretty well wiped out as far as these high-value edible species go,” says Hodgson. “The results are very shocking.”
Fiona Holland, Hong Kong
New Scientist 25 October 1997
Vocabulary
Reef = banco di coralli
Poisoning = avvelenamento
Divers = subacquei (anche: palombari, sommozzatori)
Plundered = depredato
Sewage = fognatura
Wiped out = distrutti
Questions
How have coral reefs been damaged?
When and where was the survey carried out?
Why were very few humped wrasse found in the Indo-Pacific?
Why are the results alarming?
Ultime modifiche: lunedì, 17 giugno 2013, 17:56