Scientists Warn of Threat to Coral Reefs

In the waters around the U.S. Virgin Islands, as much as 40 percent of coral died in some reefs last year, and the coral that survived probably isn’t healthy enough to survive another hot summer, said Caroline Rogers, a
U.S. Geological Survey biologist.

“It worries me. It’s looking so similar” to last year, said Rogers, who has studied coral in the Virgin Islands for 22 years. “It’s impossible to overstate how important this is.”

Reefs are vital habitat for fish, lobsters and other sea life that feed and breed in the sheltered waters. The reefs also deflect storm waves that might otherwise wash away the beaches that are at the heart of the region’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

Bleached and infested with disease, coral off Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is in poor shape, scientists said in interviews last week. They said further bleaching wouldn’t be apparent before summer and it would take some after that before they would know if more coral died.

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