One-Third of All Known Reef-Building Coral Species Face Extinction
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One-Third of All Known Reef-Building Coral Species Face Extinction
Project AWARE Foundation Joins Leading Coral Experts at International Coral Reef Symposium
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – July 18, 2008 – In a first-ever comprehensive global assessment to determine the status of coral species worldwide, leading coral scientists warn that a third of reef-building coral species are threatened with extinction.
Citing climate change and human-induced destruction as causes, the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) – a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) – applied the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria to assess over 800 coral species.
Project AWARE Foundation joined partner organizations and more than 3,000 leading coral scientists and marine resource managers during the recent International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, July 7 – 11th, where this major announcement took place.
The ICRS, held every four years, is committed to sharing the best available global reef science with government agencies, resource management and non-government organizations throughout the world. Project AWARE was a sponsor organization and worked with its CoralWatch partner, the University of Queensland, to showcase the conservation efforts of volunteer divers to protect coral reefs worldwide.
The 39 scientists who co-authored this latest study agree that if rising sea surface temperatures continue to cause increased frequency of coral bleaching and coral disease events, many reefs may not have enough time to recover and this could lead to species extinctions.
"These results show that as a group, reef-building corals are more at risk of extinction than all terrestrial groups, apart from amphibians, and are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change,” said Roger McManus, Conservation International’s Vice President for Marine Programs and Project AWARE Foundation’s Board of Directors member. “The loss of the corals will have profound implications for millions of people who depend on coral reefs for their livelihoods.”
“These recent findings make it clear that we need to act now to improve corals’ ability to cope with global changes. We need to reduce our CO2 emissions and tackle the major local drivers threatening coral reefs such as overfishing and poor water quality, caused by runoff of chemicals, fertilizers and sediments.” states Jenny Miller Garmendia, Director for Project AWARE Foundation. “Together with the University of Queensland’s CoralWatch program and partners like Reef Check and dive volunteers worldwide, there are many opportunities for individuals to participate in reef monitoring, education and conservation locally.”
The threatened corals species will be placed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Speciesä in October 2008. Currently, the assessments can be found at
http://www.sci.odu.edu/gmsa/about/corals.shtml.
More information about coral reef education, conservation and CoralWatch monitoring
worldwide can be found at www.projectaware.org.
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Photos, video and other media materials related to global assessment available at:
ftp.conservation.org/guest/CORALS
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