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Young World
Ancient coral reefs
DESTROYED: Colonies of ancient coral reefs. PHOTO: AP
Here's more evidence of the damage global warming can cause. Warming waters of the seas have destroyed entire colonies of ancient coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea. Edwin Hernandez-Delgado, a biology researcher at the University of Puerto Rico, found a colony of 800-year-old star coral that had died just off Puerto Rico. Tyler Smith of the U.S. Virgin Islands Coral Reef Monitoring Programme, found a three-foot block of brain coral that was at least 90 per cent dead. These are slow growing, reef-building coral and cannot be replaced. Jeff Miller, fisheries biologist with the U.S. National Park Service, said, "These are corals that are the foundation of the reef. We're talking about colonies that were here when Columbus came by and have died in the past three to four months." Coral reefs support a multi-billion dollar tourism industry. Coral is also crucial to the survival of some fish species. Reefs limit damage from natural disasters like hurricane and tsunamis. And recently there has been a possibility of new medicines being sourced from coral. Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance called this "an underwater holocaust".
COMPILED BY R. KRITHIKA
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