Welcome to Mateoland | Writing by Matthew Yeomans

CONDE NAST TRAVELER — JULY 1999

REEFS IN PERIL
Thousands of miles of the world's coral reefs are already dead or dying. Is there any hope for the rest?
By Matthew Yeomans

Even hardened environmentalists, long accustomed to operating in a mode of perpetual crisis, were shocked when the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) issued the findings of its most recent report late last year: From mid-1007 through November 1998, between 40 and 50 percent of the world’s coral reefs had succumbed to a potentially deadly affliction — bleaching.

Throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, as well as the Caribbean Sea, thousands of miles of once vibrantly hued coral had turned white, according to GCRMN, a consortium formed by the world’s top reef scientists after a 1994 UN conference on sustainable development. Bleaching occurs when the reef loses the symbiotic algae that inhabit the coral polyp tissue. The coral is dependent on these algae, which provide nutrients and give the coral its color. The report stated that "the coral bleaching of 1997-1998 is the most geographically widespread ever recorded, and probably the most severe."

Scientists have linked bleaching to rising water temperatures, noting that during last year’s El Nino climate system — which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says was one of the two most intense El Nino events of the century — global ocean temperatures rose more than two percent.

But warmer water is only one of the many stresses. Bleaching, in itself, is not necessarily a death sentence (given time and protection from other dangers, coral can recover), but so much of the world’s coral reef is already threatened by different problems that experts fear many areas no longer have the capacity to bounce back.

"Reefs are under attack the world over," says Stephen Colwell, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance. "Human activities, such as overfishing and the dumping of fertilizer, sewage, and sediment in the water, as well as population growth, are primary threats."

For Colwell, the GCRMN reported added a new sense of urgency to what he already knows is an environmental catastrophe in the making. He and other activists hope that last year’s disaster will highlight the vital role coral reefs play in maintaining nature’s status quo. Because they host such an abundance of life, when the reefs start dying, it’s sign that something is very wrong in the oceans. "Corals are like canaries in a coal mine," says DeeVon Quirolo, project director of Reef Relief, a Florida Keys-based environmental group.

CONSIDERED BY MARINE scientists to be the ocean’s version of rain forests, coral reefs house some of the oldest and most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. They provide habitat for more than a quarter of all known marine species, and they impact human life too, serving as a source of food and employment and preventing coastline erosion by acting as a breakwater.

Nearly half a billion people, some eight percent of the world’s population, live within 60 miles of a coral reef, and many earn a living by feeding, hosting, or providing recreational opportunities to tourists.

"The protection of the coral reef is one of the most important things for us," says Elsmarie Buekenboom, director of tourism for Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles. Tourism in the number one industry on the island, which receives 65,000 visitors each year, nearly half of whom scuba dive.

Belize, another prime Caribbean dive destination, was affected by last year’s bleaching, with surface water temperatures in some of the cays hitting 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Craig Hayes, owner of the Turneffe Flats, a resort some 30 miles off the coast of Belize, is all too aware of the reef’s importance. "Our business is completely dependent on the health of the reef," he says. "That’s primarily why people come here."

IN THE LAST DECADE, many reefs have been damaged by activities associated with tourism, and these stresses could prove lethal to coral already made vulnerable by bleaching. Among the culprits are cruise ships, which occasionally cause problems: In the past two years, one reef off the coast of St. Maarten was accidentally struck twice. Some uneducated divers touch coral and even break off pieces to bring home as souvenirs. And, according to Colwell, large, fast-growing beach resorts such as Phuket, Thailand, have created so much water pollution that the surrounding reefs perished.

Today, some of the most vulnerable reefs lie around the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagoes. Patches of severe bleaching occurred there during El Nino, but the more persistent dangers are fishermen who, eager to feed the local population and to supply rare, prized catches to exclusive restaurants in Asia, use cyanide and explosives to kill fish, destroying the coral in the process. According to the Philippine Ministry of the Interior, less than ten percent of the country’s reefs are healthy.

Human destruction of coral reefs is also very evident in Jamaica. In the late 1980s, reefs there, especially around Negril, fell prey to polluted runoff. Over the last five years, Reef Relief has mounted an aggressive effort to monitor Jamaica’s reefs and has worked with Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society to create a marine park and to institute watershed plans to reduce the sources of pollution. Colwell says that despite these efforts — and despite the fact that Negril was one of the most popular dive destinations in the Caribbean in the 1980s — "no one goes there anymore."

In the Florida Keys, Reef Relief project director Quirolo points to the damage done by agricultural runoff in the Everglades. In 1997 the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, part of a NOAA program, began to help coordinate local efforts to manage the reefs and established no-fishing zones so that endangered species, such as the grouper, can recover. Quirolo maintains, The reef is still a magical and enthralling place." But, she also admits, "some divers don’t come to the Keys anymore, because they can choose a better dive experience somewhere else."

It’s a position begrudgingly shared by Sheri Lohr, who is a member of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council and the marketing manager for a dive center. "In the thirteen years I’ve been here, there’s been a visible deterioration." So far, tourism has not been seriously affected, but, she cautions, "we are hanging in the balance right now."

DESPITE THE PRESSURE TOURISM has put on coral reefs, it might also represent their best chance for survival. "Tourism brings problems," says Colwell, "but it also creates an economic incentive for communities to preserve their coral reefs." The World Bank agreed with this conclusion when it convened a meeting on reef conservation last year.

Environmentalists point to the success of well-managed marine protection areas — the aquatic equivalent of national parks — as one of the best weapons in the fight to save the reefs. In February, the National Park Service proposed allocating $1.6 million for use in the year 2000 to protect coral reefs in such existing national parks as Biscayne, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.

On Bonaire, one successful marine park — financed wholly by diver’s fees — has been in operation for 20 years. Visitors must attend a reef orientation course before they’re allowed into the park, and every November the island hosts a festival for marine experts, conservationists, and scuba enthusiasts. Tourism director Beukenboom is hopeful: "The contribution of Bonaire, with its small piece of reef, will pay back the whole planet."

Ultimately, says Quirolo, educating people about coral reefs is the way to save them. Her organization runs school seminars and gives information to tourist facilities in the Keys. "I have seen so many magazine pictures of reefs covered with nuisance algae or already dead. There are a few fish in the picture, so people think, ‘This is a great reef.’ They’re easily fooled because they haven’t been taught the difference."