It is estimated that coral
reefs provide $375 billion per year around the world in goods and services with NOAA suggesting that in South Florida alone our
reefs have an asset value of $8.5 billion generating $4.4 billion in local sales & $2 billion in local income supporting over 70,000 jobs.
These subtropical
reefs could provide refuge for other species challenged by climate change and new opportunities to protect these fledgling ecosystems.
"Climate change seems to be redistributing coral
reefs, the same way it is shifting many other marine species," said Nichole Price, senior researcher of the study published in the Journal of Marine Ecology Progress Series
Apart from this, the species surrounding the
reefs also showed similarities with those described in Mediterranean coralligenous communities.
According to Scientific American, 'Unchecked coastal development pollutes
reefs; illegal, unreported, and unmonitored fishing depletes them; carbon dioxide emissions inhibit their ability to grow; and historic ocean warming has in recent years caused back-to-back bleaching events that threatened
reefs worldwide, including potentially as much as half of the Great Barrier
Reef's northern corals.'
When
reefs are destroyed from dredging or building a cruise port, they can pay us to restore the
reef that they've destroyed.
Excellent
reefs are determined when the live coral cover of the
reef is at least 75 percent, while a
reef is categorized as good when its live coral cover is at least 50 percent to 75 percent.
Artificial
reefs are used to create complex habitat in areas that lack intricate hard bottom structure.
Said Frank Mars of Mars, Inc., 'Indonesia's grand challenge for how healthy coral
reefs could become a key attraction for increasing the Indonesian tourism industry was inspiring.
The
reef is actually a vast collection of thousands of smaller coral
reefs stretching from the northern tip of Queensland to the state's southern city of Bundaberg.
Photographs have been published showing that aside from Panganiban, China has also transformed Kagitingan (Fiery Cross), Calderon (Cuarteron), Burgos (Gaven), Mabini (Johnson South), Zamora (Subi) and McKennan (Hughes)
reefs into artificial islands.