America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a stark warning on the nation’s coral reefs yesterday.

US reefs near human populations face “intense” threats while even the most remote reefs are troubled, it says. The massive 2008 state of coral reef ecosystems report says a conservative message would be that nearly half of reefs are not in good condition and are in long-term decline.

“The report shows that this is a global issue,” says Tim Keeney, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere (press release). “While the report indicates reefs in general are healthier in the Pacific than the Atlantic, even remote reefs are subject to threats stemming from climate change, as well as illegal fishing and marine debris.”

The report states:

Since the last reporting effort [in 2005], the condition of resources declined, while threats in the majority of jurisdictions have been increasing. For about half of the jurisdictions, threats such as climate change/coral bleaching, coral disease, and tourism and recreation have not changed significantly over the last three years, but have increased over the past 10-25 years.

It took 270 scientists looking at 15 ecosystems to compile the near-600 page monster of a report, presented to the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale. The graph below shows the ranking of ten common threats in these ecosystems*.

“There are so many people here and all of them are focused on the same goals: understanding our coral reefs, why are they declining, how can we protect them, how can we manage them more effectively?” says Joshua Voss, of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University (WPTV).**

Kacky Andrews, program manager of the government Coral Reef Conservation Program, notes a great phrase for the problem in the LA Times. As coined by Scripps scientist Jeremy Jackson: coral are on the “slippery slope to slime”.

*Ten threats:

Climate Change and Coral Bleaching

Coral Disease

Tropical Storms

Coastal Development

Tourism and Recreation

Commercial Fishing

Subsistence and Recreational Fishing

Vessel Damage

Marine Debris

Aquatic Invasive Species

**This quote was slightly corrected from the original version by WPTV and subsequently by us. We also failed to note in our original post that the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute is part of Florida Atlantic University.

Image: NOAA