Healthy coral reef at Nikko Bay, Rock Islands, Palau. (Ian Shive).GreenTracker| Coral reefs are complex, visually spectacular ecosystems, extravaganzas of diverse and colorful marine life and a key source of food and economic revenue to half a billion people globally.

“Currently we find 75 percent of the world’s reefs are threatened by a combination of local and global threats,” says Lauretta Burke at the World Resources Institute, a senior author of a new report that says the world’s coral reefs are in very big trouble. “By 2030 the percentage will rise to 90 percent. By 2050 virtually all reefs will be threatened,” she says.

This report is not new news at AOC. The report talks about overfishing and a runoff of sewage and sediments from the shore.

“But perhaps the most short-sighted threat to reefs is the use of destructive fishing practices: The use of poisons to stun and capture fish, the use of explosives to kill fish,” she says.

The report addresses the impact of greenhouse gases on corals.

Add it all together and one third of all coral species are at risk of extinction says Nancy Knowlton from the Smithsonian Institution’s Marine Biology Research Institution.

“This makes corals the most endangered animal on the planet,” she says, “even more endangered than frogs, which have gotten a lot of press because of the diseases that have wiped out a lot of frog populations. And of course this is just the corals — it doesn’t count all the things that depend on corals.” via NPR

Jane Lubchenco, who now runs the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says “It will take a Herculean effort to reverse the current trajectory and leave healthy ocean ecosystems to our children and our grandchildren.”

As our friend Dave Head wrote on Anne’s Facebook wall this morning, it’s tough to get the public interested in coral reefs, compared to dolphins.

Please review some of our earlier articles on coral reefs (thumbnails follow Ian Shive’s photographs), including excellent videos on conditions in the Southern Pacific.

These images comes from Ian Shive, author of The National Parks: Our American Landscape.