'Alarming' plight of coral reefs - BBC

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Thursday, 10 July 2008 19:39 UK

'Alarming' plight of coral reefs
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent,
BBC News website

A third of the world's reef-building coral
species are facing extinction.

That is the stark conclusion from the first
global study to assess the extinction risks
of corals.

Writing in the journal Science, researchers
say climate change, coastal development,
overfishing, and pollution are the major
threats.

The economic value of the world's reefs has
been estimated at over $30bn (£15bn) per
year, through tourism, fisheries and coastal
protection.

-snip-

"It's not just the fact that something like
a third of all reef-forming corals are
threatened, but that we could be facing the
loss of large areas of these ecosystems
within 50 to 100 years.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7498502.stm