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solonavi 26 December 2008 Coral Reefs, General, Protected Sites 802 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

Yahoo News

Scientists thought it would take a decade for Southeast Asia’s coral reefs to heal after 2004’s deadly tsunami but they said Friday that Indonesia’s reefs have bounced back with surprising speed, restoring livelihoods to countless small communities.

The findings came as communities across the Indian Ocean remembered the disaster that struck Dec. 26, 2004 with prayers, songs and tears. About 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered the tsunami.

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Scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, working with the Indonesian government and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said their examination of 60 sites on 497 miles (800 kilometers) of coastline along Indonesia’s Aceh province showed the reefs were bouncing back.

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Healthy coral reefs are economic engines for Acehnese communities, Campbell added, supplying fish to eat and sell as well as tourism dollars from recreational diving.

The tsunami decimated coastlines across the Indian Ocean, wiping out villages, killing entire families and crippling the economies in parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The United Nations estimated that Aceh alone lost $332.4 million ($1,599/ha) from the loss of its reefs to the destructive waves.

But four years on, the multibillion dollar rebuilding process is almost complete with more than 120,000 homes built in Aceh alone and the reconstruction of tourist hotels and restaurants along Thailand’s Andaman coast.

Thousands gathered Friday to celebrate the progress but to also remember the dead and reflect on a tragedy that turned their lives upside down.

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The healing trend embraced by those devastated by the tsunami has extended to the reefs with communities responding to calls to protect them from illegal fishing, pollution and coastal development.

Campbell said citizens have been particularly responsive in Aceh where fishermen have stopped using illegal techniques like dynamite and villagers have transplanted corals into areas that were hardest hit.

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“Left alone, these things can quickly grow back into what looks like a coral reef in a short time,” he said. “We are seeing similar things around the southern Great Barrier Reef where reefs that experience major catastrophe can bounce back quite quickly.”

John Bruno, a reef expert from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agreed saying it shows coral reefs are able to recover after severe disturbances.

“There has been so much bad news about coral decline lately, and the threats to corals seem to increase every year. It is important to recognize that these invaluable ecosystems are not lost,” he said in an e-mail interview. “We just have to implement some common sense policies locally and substantially reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at a global scale.”