Deep-sea trawling, climate change threaten cold-water ‘coral gardens’
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal petition today to protect 43 imperiled coral species under the Endangered Species Act. These stunning corals, which all occur in Alaskan waters, face a growing threat of extinction due to large-scale climate change effects and fisheries activities, especially deep-sea trawling that can destroy many square miles of these corals in a single day.
Fishing, ocean acidification, ocean warming, changes in marine productivity, and other effects of human-caused climate change threaten to wipe out these sensitive corals within the next 50 years.
“Most people have no idea that cold-water corals even exist in Alaska, but they do and they need our help to survive,” said Kiersten Lippmann, a biologist with the Center. “Researchers in the Aleutians were so excited to see the beauty and abundance of cold-water corals in some areas that they called them ‘coral gardens.’ But now trawling and climate change could push these amazing species off the planet.”
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But the greatest threat to Alaskan corals is human-caused climate change. Ocean acidification and ocean warming are progressing rapidly in the North Pacific and Arctic oceans — changes that threaten the survival of many calcifying marine organisms, including corals, and the plankton that make up their major food source. If emissions continue at their current rate, water suitable for cold-water coral growth in Alaska is expected to vanish by mid-century.
Protection under the Endangered Species Act would prompt coral conservation, as destructive fishing activities continue to occur in areas of known coral abundance. Protection would also prompt greater research into these corals, since the vast majority of coral locations in Alaska remain unexplored. Also, the Endangered Species Act would require federal agencies to ensure that their actions do not harm the coral species, which could result in agencies requiring projects with significant greenhouse gas emissions to consider and minimize such impacts on vulnerable coral species.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must respond to the Center’s petition to list 43 species of coral in 90 days and determine whether listing is warranted for each of the coral species within one year.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 375,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Center for Biological Diversity, 20 August 2012. Press release.
