Fears in Miami That Port Expansion Will Destroy Reefs
As Miami prepares to dredge its port to accommodate supersize freighters, environmentalists are making a last-ditch effort to protect threatened coral reefs and acres of sea grass that they say would be destroyed by the expansion.
Haitian Divers Hope to Aid Ailing Reef
Environmental degradation is rife in Haiti, deforestation, erosion, pollution, and for the most part it is hard to miss. But for decades the country’s marine environment has suffered unseen. Its extensive coral reef system, an attraction to foreign scuba divers in the 1970s and ’80s, has largely died off, partly from sedimentation and climate change, but mostly from overfishing.
Blue Carbon Initiative: Buried Treasure For Climate and Coastal Communities
Dubbed “blue carbon” for their ability to sequester and store huge amounts of carbon, mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes- show great climate mitigation potential, immediately available and cost-effective, for removing greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The Blue Carbon Initiative program, draw the world’s attention to the crucial role of these direly threaten coastal ecosystems, in the fight against carbon emissions.
Geographic Analysis Offers New Insight Into Coral Disease Spread
In the last 30 years, more than 90 percent of the reef-building coral responsible for maintaining major marine habitats and providing a natural barrier against hurricanes in the Caribbean has disappeared because of a disease of unknown origin.
Reaching The Gap Between Scientists And Policy Makers
Dr. Sylvia Earle, world-renowned oceanographer, joined a team of scientists and government officials, on a week-long expedition “the Mission Blue expedition” to the Swan Islands and Mesoamerican Reef to raise global awareness of the critical importance of the Mesoamerican Reef and surrounding areas.
Outrage At Drilling Permit For Australia Reef
UNESCO just listed Australian western Ningaloo coast as a World Heritage site late last month due to its reef, sea turtles and white whales.But environmentalists expressed outrage after the Australian government green-lighted a proposal from Shell to explore for gas nearby.
Northwest Coast of Madagascar
The Betsiboka Estuary on the northwest coast is the mouth of Madagascar’s largest river and one of the world’s fast-changing coastlines. Nearly a century of extensive logging of rainforests and coastal mangroves has resulted in nearly complete clearing of the land and dramatic rates of erosion. Astronauts describe their view of Madagascar as “bleeding into the ocean.”
Division over future of Chagos islands and islanders
Meeting in London addresses environmental issues surrounding the ban on inhabitation of the Indian Ocean archipelago. The central question was how to balance the archipelago’s environmental importance with its original inhabitants’ argued right to go home.
Hong Kong bans trawling to save fish stocks and marine environment
A decision welcomed by conservationists, as a crucial move to save fish stocks and revive the city’s depleted marine environment.