South-East Asia's Coral Triangle teems with an abundance of life almost unmatched elsewhere on the planet
criss-cross Black Rock Reef on their way to nearby seaweed and pearl farms. Below, the blue lips of giant clams open and close amid a jungle of multicoloured coral. At the sound of a distant detonation—dynamite fishing, although illegal, is common in the area—a small shark swims hurriedly away. The reef lies nestled off the town of Taytay, on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.
These sensitivities explain why corals are so vulnerable. In addition to climate change, local stresses still abound. “It’s not about managing the reefs, it’s about managing the people,” says Peter Mumby of the University of Queensland in Australia. In the Philippines some 40m of them live within 30km of a coral reef. Overfishing disrupts reefs’ ecosystems. Coastal construction can lead to the dumping of sediment in the ocean, clouding waters and blocking needed light.
The most recent global spate of bleaching, in 2014-17, affected perhaps 70% of coral reefs, according to America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was particularly severe because it coincided in part with El Niño, a periodic climate pattern that warms equatorial waters in the Pacific every few years. Even reefs that had not experienced any recent extensive bleaching, such as the northernmost areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, suffered badly.
Scientists, politicians and activists are trying to tackle both the short-term and long-term threats which corals face. The thinking is that the local environment makes a difference: corals that face fewer local threats may have a better shot at surviving larger changes to their environment. It helps that the number of marine protected areas around the world is on the rise.
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