Caribbean coral reefs decimated

[dArKeR]

In a study of Caribbean reefs, British researchers find that coral has declined by about 80 percent in some areas, a loss that may take many decades to recover. The study examined the health of the coral reefs across the whole Caribbean basin and found that at some sites the coverage of coral has dropped from 50 percent to only about 10 percent in just three decades.

The study appears on Sciencexpress, the Internet version of the journal Science. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom.
       A total of 263 sites in the Caribbean basin were included in the survey. The sites ranged from reefs along the South American coast, north to Florida and Jamaica, and west as far as the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Texas.

http://msnbc.com/news/940433.asp?0cv=CB10

http://darker0darker.tripod.com/

[caribmon]

1. Reefs

I lived in St. Maarten for a decade and I will attest to this. I watched reefs die during my tenure there - as well as conch beds. Gone.

Tourism is St. Maarten's only industry and I hope other islands learn from that island's mistakes.

Caribmon

[foo_bar]

2. wouldn't decimated mean a 10% decline?