SE Asia's reefs threatened by overfishing, pollution

SE Asia's reefs threatened by overfishing, pollution

Sean Yoong, Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

About 88 percent of Southeast Asia's coral reefs - considered
among world's most important and extensive reef systems - are
severely threatened by human activities such as overfishing and
pollution, a U.S.-based environmental group said Wednesday.

The threatened reefs are mainly in Indonesia and the
Philippines, which hold 77 percent of the region's nearly 100,000
square kilometers of coral reefs, the Washington-based World
Resources Institute said in a statement issued in Malaysia.

More than 85 percent of reefs in Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore
and Vietnam were also endangered, the institute said, citing
results of a recent analysis released in the United States last
month. Some of the research was conducted in Malaysia's eastern
Sabah state on Borneo island.

Coral reefs were important to the economic and social fabric
of Southeast Asia, "yet they are the most threatened reefs in the
world." researcher Lauretta Burke said in the statement.

The research was compiled over the past four years by 35
scientists from across Southeast Asia, the United States,
Australia and Britain. Southeast Asia has 34 percent of the
world's reefs, including more than 600 of the world's 800 known
reef-building coral species.

In its statement, the institute said that Southeast Asia was
considered the "global epicenter of marine diversity", since the
area surrounding a single island here could yield a higher
variety of reef-building coral species compared to all the reefs
in the Caribbean.

Overfishing was found to be the "most pervasive threat" to
coral reefs, ranking above coastal development, marine pollution,
sedimentation from inland activities, and destructive fishing
practices such as the use of poison and dynamites.

The institute said overfishing should be reduced by developing
alternative livelihoods for fishermen.

Southeast Asian governments should expand the protected areas
network for coral reefs, the institute said. About 8 percent of
the region's reefs are currently in marine protected areas.

The report also called for the regulation of international
trade in live reef organisms, which exceeds US$1 billion per
year, with Southeast Asia supplying nearly all of the world's
live reef food fish.