Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the Earth's surface...
yet... they are home to over one-quarter of all known marine animal and plant species. Learn how they provide vital economic and ecological resources that many people depend on.
June 8, 2006 marked the first day that the Endangered Species Act officially protects Florida's staghorn and elkhorn corals, two species endemic to Florida and the Caribbean that are on the brink of extinction.
Most United States reefs are threatened. Almost all of the reefs off Florida are at risk from a range of factors, including runoff of fertilizers and pollutants from farms and coastal development. Almost half of Hawaii's reefs are vulnerable, while virtually all of Puerto Rico's reefs are threatened.
The Spanish government has taken the lead in Europe in the protection of these ecosystems in the Mediterranean, prohibiting the use of trawling methods, purse seine and dredgers in all the waters under Spanish control where any of these habitats exists, and also on sea bottoms that are at a greater depth than 1000 metres.
"If a country with a long fishing tradition, such as Spain, takes the initiative in protecting the corals, the superior marine plants and the seabed of calcareous seaweeds, this is a clear indication to the rest of the European Union that these measures are necessary and positive for the recovery of the fishing grounds", Xavier Pastor has argued.
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