1/17/2024 0 Comments Red sea peninsula![]() ![]() “We will lose a lot of wildlife and the ecosystem will be changing in a way that affects us as humans in terms of resources. “So not only will the temperature increase, but the PH level will change too,” affecting all animals with shells, she said. “When the temperature of the ocean goes up, it absorbs more carbon dioxide, which creates carbonic acid,” said Cairo-based climate change consultant Katherine Jones. These are pushing many species of corals past their limits of tolerance. Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, shielding land surfaces but generating huge, long-lasting marine heatwaves. It has also suspended beginners’ diving classes in some areas to allow damaged reefs to recover.īut the largest looming threat, far harder to fix, is global warming. Steps have been taken in Egypt to protect reefs and marine life that are crucial to the local tourism sector.Įgypt’s Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, which oversees 269 diving centres and over 2,900 professional divers, has protected fragile areas with buoys to keep boats from mooring. The new global survey said that live hard coral cover in the region fluctuated over recent decades but declined overall, from 36.1 percent in 1997 to 34.3 percent in 2019.Ĭauses for the degraded reefs varied by location but included tourism activities, coastal development, land runoff and overfishing, the report said. The Red Sea, with just over five percent of the world’s coral reefs, is home to 209 types of coral, according to Egypt’s environment ministry. ![]() The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden boast the most biologically diverse coral reef communities outside of Southeast Asia. “If they disappear, we’ll disappear with them,” he says of the vibrant corals on the reef, a species-rich ecosystem just below the turquoise waters that is beloved by diving enthusiasts worldwide.Ĭoral reefs, often dubbed the “rainforests of the oceans” for their rich biodiversity, are under threat everywhere as rising sea temperatures and acidification cause catastrophic “bleaching”.Īlong with pollution and dynamite fishing, global warming wiped out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs between 20, says a new survey by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the biggest ever carried out.Ĭoral reefs cover only a tiny fraction, 0.2 percent, of the ocean floor, but they are home to at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants. Standing on a boat bobbing gently in the Red Sea, another Egyptian diving instructor Mohamed Abdelaziz looks on as tourists snorkel amid the brilliantly coloured corals, a natural wonder now under threat from climate change. “We can see the coral discolouring and turning white.” “We can see the effects of global warming before our eyes,” said Islam Mohsen, 37, a local diving instructor at the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh. SHARM EL SHEIKH-Many species of coral in the Red Sea, which is bordered by the Saudi peninsula, Sudan and Eritrea, are unusually heat-resistant, but local professionals say they have already witnessed damage, as some studies have suggested. ![]()
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