This #CoralsWeek, learn something new about corals. Here’s the bottom line. 1. Corals are underwater rainforests. 2. Corals have a tiny footprint but a big impact. Covering only about one-tenth of one percent of the ocean floor, they provide habitat for more than 25 percent of marine life. 3. Coral reefs protect shorelines from erosion and storm damage. They also support commercial and recreational fisheries—an estimated annual value of $200 million nationwide.
4. Shallow corals—the ones snorkelers and scuba divers see on tropical vacations—live all over the Caribbean, Florida, and Hawaii, as well as the Indo-Pacific region.
5. Not all corals are found in the tropics. Deep-sea corals live in cold oceanic waters especially between 200 and 6,000 feet deep. They are extremely slow-growing, but can survive for thousands of years. Scientists have dated living deep-sea corals to be more than 4,000 years old.
6. Coral reefs are gravely threatened by disease, climate change, impacts from fishing activities, and land-based sources of pollution. Once damaged, reefs can take decades to recover.
7. NOAA has an active role in the management, research, and restoration of coral ecosystems. In 2014, NOAA listed 20 new corals as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. We are now developing plans that will serve as a road map for their recovery.
8. NOAA’s Habitat Focus Area in the Northeast Reserves and Culebra Island in northeastern Puerto Rico is home to a variety of coral species along with diverse fish species that depend on them. As part of the Habitat Blueprint, we’re working to protect and enhance coral reef ecosystems and near-shore habitats, protect biodiversity, and reduce pollution to improve habitat.
9. The primary reef-building corals in the Caribbean, elkhorn and staghorn, have seen declines of more than 90% in the last 25 years—they are listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. We help to enhance coral populations in the Caribbean by propagation, or growing corals in nurseries and transplanting them to reefs.
10. In the Pacific, we work to remove invasive algae—which can smother and kill corals—either by hand, or using a large underwater vacuum called a Super Sucker.