Did you know?

Did you know?

Coral Reefs have significant impact on millions of people worldwide, and yet there remain important information gaps about their structure and function and their responses to human impacts.

Today, over half of the world’s population (more than 3.6 billion people) live within 100km of the world’s coastlines
Two out of three of the world’s cities of over 2.5 million people are located in coastal regions
Coral reefs occupy only 0.1% of the ocean’s surface, yet they are the world’s richest repository of marine biodiversity
Coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth, and are the only natural communities distinctly visible from space
Coral reefs reduce the energy of waves breaking on tropical coastlines (including during such events as Tsunamis) and hence protect homes and lives
Coral reefs have spanned nearly 400 million years of evolution
Of the 109 countries with coral reefs, 93 are experiencing damage to them and more than 60% of the world's coral reefs are estimated as threatend.
In 2002, more than 60% of the Great Barrier Reef (the world’s largest continuous coral reef) was bleached
Over the last 20 years, an unprecedented increase in coral disease has been observed. Although the Caribbean basin was believed to have a much greater incidence of coral disease compared to other locations, findings from the Coral Reef Targeted Research program are showing that coral disease exists in all tropical oceans
The Great Barrier Reef alone is responsible for over $2.5 billion tourism dollars to the Australian economy each year
In 1998 approximately 16% of the world’s coral reefs died in an unprecedented coral "bleaching" event following significant ocean warming. Coral bleaching is a stressful condition in which coral lose their symbiotic algae and thus, color
Coral reefs in the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia have undergone significant bleaching events in late 2005 and early 2006.