Scientists Begin Assessing Tsunami Damage To Reefs, Forests

[hatrack]

Male (Maldives), Jan 2 (IANS) "Besides causing immense loss to human life and property, tsunamis may have caused untold environmental damage, with reports of destroyed coral reefs and uprooted mangrove forests trickling in. While attention is clearly focused on the rising human toll, some dive operators and marine biologists are reporting that corals are suffocating under layers of mud and heaps of rotten fish clogging beachfronts, and rare turtle nesting sites have been washed out to sea, reports Haveeru newspaper.

"There is a huge natural cost but what it is, is still to be determined," said Lynne Hale, director of the global marine initiative for the Nature Conservancy, who worked in Thailand's Phuket Island and Sri Lanka for many years. Both areas were hard hit by the tsunami.

Now based in Rhode Island in the US, Hale said the tsunami might have caused lasting environmental damage that may take decades or longer to recover from. "This is a massive, massive erosion event," she said.

A UN task force based in Geneva now plans to assess whether environmental damage threatens human health and the toll on the ecological resources -- many of which support tourism and the fishing industry. The Indian Ocean region, with its aqua, shallow seas, hosts some of the most famous coral reefs in the world that support scores of fish species found nowhere else. Mangroves are critical nurseries for many varieties of fish. And the beaches of Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar islands and other places hit by the tsunami host prime nesting spots for some of the world's rarest sea turtles."

EDIT

http://www.eians.net/2005/01/02/02top.html

[pmbryant]

1. Well, since the tsunami was a natural process

I'm not sure that it can be considered to have caused any "natural" cost.

:shrug:

The human cost, of course, is beyond horrific.

--Peter

[phantom power]

2. I saw some underwater video, before and after

They interviewed a diver who said "it looks like a bomb went off down here." He was right. The coral was nothing but dead rubble. The fish looked like the humans on land, wandering around the ruins.