The Hawaiian Islands are home to 410,000 acres of living reef and more than 7,000 species of marine animals and plants.
A recent study revealed that coral reefs worldwide are on the decline. The decline began back in the 1950s and has since resulted in the coral reef diversity being eroded by more than 60%.
“It’s a call to action — we’ve been hearing this time and time again from fisheries and biodiversity research. We know coral reefs are biodiversity hot spots. And preserving biodiversity not only protects nature but supports the humans who use these species for cultural, subsistence and livelihood means,” lead author of the study Dr. Tyler Eddy told Current Science Daily.
Eddy conducted the study as a research associate at the University of British Columbia Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.
The comprehensive study highlights the harmful effects of habitat destruction, overfishing and climate change on a coral reef system, which provides benefits to humans. Those benefits include food, livelihoods and protection from storms.
“It’s heart-wrenching for us to see photos and video of wildfires or floods, and that level of destruction is happening right now all over the world’s coral reefs and threatening people’s culture, their daily food and their history. This isn’t just an environmental issue; it’s also about human rights,” the coauthor of the study, who was also an Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries research associate and now an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University, Dr. Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, told Current Science Daily.
