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08/10/2007: "Oceanicide happening faster than we thought"

Coral reefs in much of the Pacific Ocean are dying faster than previously thought, according to a study released Wednesday, with the decline driven by climate change, disease and coastal development.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill found that coral coverage in the Indo-Pacific — an area stretching from Indonesia's Sumatra island to French Polynesia — dropped 20 percent in the past two decades.

About 600 square miles of reefs have disappeared since the 1960s, the study found, and the losses were just as bad in Australia's well-protected Great Barrier Reef as they were in poorly managed marine reserves in the Philippines.

[ You can't take steadily from something, growing your own population, while dumping that increased waste into it and not have it become less well. In healthier times, "less well" was recognized to mean "damaged," but someone might be offended if someone says that. ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070809/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_asia_dying_coral