The Coral Triangle needs no introduction as nature lovers admire it as one of God’s finest creations. Famous for coral reefs and mangroves, sooner than expected the entire stretch of water could soon lose everything.

If by now two-thirds of the coral reefs have already been destroyed by overfishing, industrial waste and climate distortion, everything is expected to be lost unless measures are being taken care of. Clearly speaking, it would only take another four decades for these reefs to be history .

Considering the fact that the life of people around this area is heavily dependent on the income generated from related marine life and its mangroves, the diminishing coral reefs could spell disaster for 100 of the 150 million natives.

The report also mentions that by 2050 food supplies would have been halved and that by the end of this century, 80-percent of the food would have be gone and there would hardly be any fresh water available courtesy of the swamping seas.

The only choice people would be left with is to flee to adjoining areas like Australia and New Zealand, thereby breaking down any cultural and traditional values.

With the area already ahead of the worst case scenario, there is very little time left to react, if at all.

[via Guardian] (Image courtesy of thespis377)

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Deep-sea corals about 400 meters off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands are believed to be much older than once thought.  They might even be the oldest living sea organism. “Researchers from Lawrence Livermore, Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Cruz have determined that two groups of Hawaiian deep-sea corals are far older than previously recorded.”

Geradia (gold) coral

Using the Stanford’s Lab’s Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, researchers used radiocarbon dating to determine the ages of Geradia sp., or gold coral, and specimens of the deep-water black coral, Leiopathes sp.

The longest lived in both species – 2,740 years and 4,270 years, respectively.

Leiopathes (deep water black) coral

Over 4,000 years old makes the deep-water black coral the oldest living skeletal-accreting marine organism known. The research can be seen in the March 23 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Until now the oldest colonies from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had life spans of 1,800 to 2,740 years. Nevertheless the results remain contentious with some biologists.

Here’s the real problem -

“Hawaiian deep sea corals face direct threats from harvesting for jewelry and from commercial fisheries that trawl the ocean bottoms.”

“The close relationship between deep sea corals (and the mid-water ecosystems) and ocean’s surface means they can be affected by natural and man-made changes in surface ocean conditions including ocean acidification, warming and altered stratification.”

In other words, we can really screw this up if we are not careful. What I want to know is how did the researchers get the coral into Stanford’s lab without messing with the ecosystem?

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was founded in 1952. It is a national security laboratory -to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. It is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

That Lab Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, is right up the street from my house.