TIME MAGAZINE (4/14/14) "Ocean View" about health of reefs (your thoughts please!)

[lostcajun]

I read a recent article in Time Magazine about the state of reefs. I am very curious as to your impressions of the article.

I want to protect the reef certainly as a diver, but also as a citizen of the planet. There is a point in which the author talks about Belize. He writes "the reef isn't what it once was. Coral cover dropped from 80% in 1971 to 13% in 1999, although there has been some recovery since.

While I have snorkeled in a variety of locations in the Pacific and Caribbean, and have witnessed bleaching, and damage to reefs, I have only had dive experiences in Belize. I am curious about the statistic. So was the reef coverage in Belize that much significantly "bigger" in 1971?

 

[knotical]

While the article seemed OK to me, I was flummoxed by the map. It says coral reefs cover only 0.1% of the ocean (perhaps true). It also purports to show coral reefs at risk, and then shows a much greater portion of the ocean covered than 0.1%. Additionally a lot of it is in areas where the water is way too deep for coral. Finally, the Caribbean area is blank. Just doesn't compute.

Sorry, can't address your question about the Belize reefs.

 

[lostcajun]

I agree. Again, I'm committed to protecting the reefs and the ocean, but, I believe that truth and accuracy needs to be used to make that happen. And I don't know enough to tell what parts of the article might be inaccurate or sloppy, but the info in the article seems like the author has missed logically connecting the dots for the readers.