Imagine you planned a day of snorkeling with a Copeland Boat Charter or Tropic Power Boat Rentals, two of our advertisers.
And when you dipped beneath the waves, all you saw was … fish. Pretty fish, sure. Big ones, tiny ones, but only fish. No coral. None of the colorful underwater vegetation that provides food and protection and even a home to the denizens of the deep.
This could happen, and is on track to happen says the National Marine Fisheries Service. Its recently-published study of the 82 corals which survive in US waters finds them threatened by pollution, runoff from commercial and residential development, overfishing, and disease. Reporting on the Service's analysis, the Virgin Islands Daily News said, "All seven species (of coral) found in the caribbean were found to be 'extremely likely' to go extinct."
In reaction to the Fisheries report, the Center for Biological Diversity is trying ti persuade the federal government to categorize the corals as endangered species. There is precedent. In 2006, elkhorn and staghorn corals were certified as endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The Center has posted a petition online in support of its request.
Corals are animals not vegetation as stated above
One thing that would help would be for the boat charters to inform their snorklers to not STAND on the coral. I was just at the caves two weeks ago and saw snorklers standing with their flippers on the coral. UGH.
You won’t see fish if the coral goes away…they are codependent.
petition does NOT open correctly, can’t sign.
the Center Biological Diversity petition that can be signed can be found at: http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/o/2167/t/5243/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10080
The other link is for a ‘petition’ document that CBD has presented to the Secretary of Commerce to list 83 coral species as endangered.