Indian Ocean May Lose Coral Islands In 50 Years, Scientist Says Wednesday,

May 12, 2004

Rising temperatures in the Indian Ocean due to global warming are threatening to kill off most of the ocean's coral islands in the next 50 years, a marine scientist said Monday.

"We have reason to believe that if climate changes continue due to the carbon dioxide that is being pumped into the atmosphere, the temperatures at ground level and in the oceans will go up," said Carl Lundin, head of the marine program at the Swiss-based World Conservation Union. "So virtually all the coralline islands have a decent chance of disappearing in 50 years," he added.

Coral reefs, the most diverse and productive communities on earth, are found in warm, clear and shallow tropical oceans, and have multiple functions, including providing food and shelter to ocean animals and protecting the shore from erosion. Coral reefs are sensitive to environmental conditions such as rising temperatures, which cause bleaching and eventual death, Reuters reported yesterday. Coralline islands are made of exposed fossil reefs and are vulnerable to erosion.

According to Lundin, sustained warming of ocean currents which followed the El Nino effect in 1998 resulted in bleaching and widespread damage to corals in the Indian Ocean. This triggered the death of between 50 and 98 percent of coral reefs in a region stretching from northern Mozambique to Eritrea to Indonesia. There has been some recovery among islands — for instance, the coral islands in the Seychelles have regained between 2 and 20 percent of their cover, said Lundin.

Lundin attributed the gradual recovery of the coral islands of Seychelles to time and the lack of negative development (George Thande, Reuters/Planet Ark, May 11).
Copyright. National Journal Group. Year 2004.