#ClimateCrisis #coral
"Global restoration efforts are failing to protect coral reefs from the effects of climate change, pollution and overfishing, says an international team of researchers
The report comes as Australia’s coral reefs have been bleached yet again, for the sixth time in nine years.
Coral reef bleaching is a global phenomenon, its effects felt not only by the millions of organisms which rely on these ecosystems for food and shelter, but by the more than 1 billion people for whom reefs represent livelihoods, as well as protection from storms and coastal erosion.
University of Western Australia doctoral candidate, Clelia Mulà estimates that around 11,700 km2 of global coral reef were degraded between 2009 and 2018 through combined bleaching, overfishing and pollution.
Global coral reef coverage may have already declined by as much as 50%, says Dr Giovanni Strona at the European Union Joint Research Centre. He expects that 'bleaching events and coral deaths will only become more common, with projected losses of total coral cover of more than 90% by the end of the century.'
Restoration efforts are dwarfed by the size of this problem, and are failing to deliver protection to reefs, says Mulà."
https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/coral-reef-restoration-doomed/
