Protecting Florida’s corals is worth the cost
Protecting species often seems to come with what some people view as a downside. To protect recently-deemed-threatened staghorn and elkhorn corals, that could mean tougher looks at beach widening, sewage discharge, ship anchoring and other coastal activities if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goes through with a designating parts of southern Florida as critical habitat for these corals, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Florida reportedly has the third-largest coral reef system in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the barrier reef in Central America near Belize. Many of Florida’s reefs have died off or suffered from bleaching. The staghorn and elkhorn corals in question have seen a 90% decline, according to the article. There is an economic importance in saving the corals, as well: NOAA has estimated the reef is worth $7.6 billion to the economy.
Read more at the article linked above….
Keri Hendry said,
April 25, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
Protecting Florida’s reefs is vital to our state’s economy. I went to a very interesting presentation last week given by Dr. Baker from the University of Miami where he detailed research he was doing to attempt to get corals to acclimate to rising ocean temperatures. I wrote a story about it which was published in the Island Sand Paper (who I work for) and I posted it on my blog - floridatreehugger.com
Keri