NOAA Proposes to List Nine Caribbean Corals to Endangered List

Nine species of Caribbean corals are among the 66 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week proposed to list under the federal Endangered Species Act. Most of the 66 corals are in the Pacific Ocean, but NOAA proposed that seven Caribbean corals be included on the endangered list and two on the threatened list.

Two of the seven are elkhorn and staghorn corals, which are already on the threatened list but NOAA wants them reclassified as endangered. Other species proposed for the endangered list include pillar coral, boulder star coral, mountainous star coral, star coral and rough cactus coral.

Those proposed for the threatened list include Lamarck’s sheet coral and elliptical star coral.

“Our corals are not in very good condition,” according to Rafe Boulon, chief of resource management at V.I. National Park. “Any protection we can provide is a good thing,” he said Monday.

Boulon listed land-based sources of pollution, anchors, overfishing, ocean acidification and bleaching among the problems for corals around the Virgin Islands.

The NOAA proposed listing is in response to a 2009 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity to list 83 coral species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Climate change was listed as the biggest threat, according to the proposal, with more than 97 percent of reefs predicted to experience by 2050 severe thermal stress, which can cause massive bleaching and mortality.

This threat is compounded by disease and reduced survival due to ocean acidification.

Many reefs worldwide have already declined substantially, with a new study documenting the Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral cover in 27 years. Others are on a similar course, with reefs in Florida and the Caribbean being the most critically imperiled.

The proposal notes that coral cover in the Caribbean has declined from 50 percent in the 1970s to less than 10 percent now, and similarly from 50 percent to 20 percent in the Indo-Pacific.

“Nothing in the world matches the wonder of a healthy coral reef — rich, colorful and even more fantastical than Dr. Seuss, said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

“It’s a wake-up call telling us our coral reefs are dying and need federal protection. If we’re going to save corals, and lots of other animals in the ocean, as well as on land, we have to make rapid cuts in greenhouse gas pollution to stop global warming and ocean acidification,” Sakashita said.

Protection under the Endangered Species Act would mean habitat protections, recovery planning, prohibitions on harming corals and, most importantly, prohibition of federal actions that could jeopardize the corals, the CBD indicated.

According to a NOAA press release, listing species as endangered does not prohibit activities like fishing or diving, but prohibits the specific “take” of those species, including harming, wounding, killing or collecting the species. It also prohibits imports, exports and commercial activities dealing in the species. These protections are not automatic for species listed as threatened, but can be established for them as well.

NOAA indicated that corals have measurable economic value for communities around the world. One independent study reported that coral reefs provide approximate $483 million in annual net benefit to the U.S. economy from tourism and recreation activities, and a combined annual net benefit from all goods and services of about $1.1 billion.

NOAA also estimates the annual commercial value of U.S. fisheries from coral reefs to be more than $100 million. Reef-based recreational fisheries generate an additional $100 million annually.

The best available scientific information was used, NOAA said, to assess the status of the species and decide if the species met the ESA’s definitions of endangered or threatened. Earlier this year, after publication of a peer-reviewed status review report and a draft management report, NOAA took an additional step of seeking public comment prior to proposing the listing.

NOAA received approximately 42,000 comments and collected 400 relevant scientific articles, reports or presentations, which were all considered when making the proposed determination.

NOAA is seeking public comment on the proposed listing before making a final listing decision by December 2013.

Submit a public comment online at www.regulations.gov and enter NOAA-NMFS-2010-0036 into the keyword search.