By Joanne McCarthy

The inherent beauty and vivid colours of coral have made it a highly sought gemstone in the fashion world. Wearing genuine red coral is believed to warn of impending ill health, protect the bearer from evil spirits, and prevent bad dreams and nightmares.

It is ironic, then, that wearing genuine red coral also directly contributes to a very real ecological nightmare.

What many in the fashion world have failed to realise, or perhaps to publicise, is that removing coral from the sea adds to the irreversible destruction of coral reefs, the consequences of which stretch far beyond the fashion world.

Recent research indicates that by the year 2050, as much as 98% of the world’s coral reefs could have disappeared. Already, one fifth of the world’s coral reefs have been obliterated due to a combination of climate change, destructive fishing methods, declining water quality from pollution, rising sea levels, and removal of coral from the sea.

Built over millions of years, coral reefs are home to more than a quarter of all marine species, including almost half of the fish caught by the commercial fishing industry.

As well as the abundance of marine life they support, coral reefs are indispensable to humans. Reefs currently provide more than $15 billion worth of fisheries and tourism services around the world, and one billion people in Asia alone depend on fish caught in coastal waters dominated by coral reefs.

Healthy coral reefs serve as natural wave barriers, buffering coastal communities from damaging storms and tsunamis, according to a recent report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Considered more biologically diverse than rainforests, coral reefs have also provided the raw materials for lifesaving medical treatments, such as the HIV drug zidovudine.

Coral reefs are notoriously sensitive, however, and vulnerable to a number of pressures. Even a one-degree temperature rise can significantly damage coral, causing it to expel its algae in a process known as coral bleaching. Bleaching weakens coral, making it more prone to disease. Moreover, if the temperature causes the algae not to return, the coral will die.

While coral reefs are also endangered by factors such as strong storms and waves, among others, their most destructive enemy is unquestionably humans. Human induced climate change, which causes bleaching, disease, water acidification and rising sea levels, as well as fishing methods, pollution, and even seemingly unconnected activities like deforestation severely damage coral.

Experts have cautioned that ocean acidification poses a serious threat to coral reefs. As oceans continue to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, water acidity increases. This severely inhibits the ability of corals to build their skeletons, the foundation of reefs.

Furthermore, recent research shows that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been underestimated, and may be closer to 410 parts per million than the estimated 385, according to Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in the University of Queensland. Because around half of this is absorbed into the ocean, the growth of corals, plankton, and other invertebrates that operate as the most basic level of the ocean food chain is slowed down considerably.

“If we continue on the pathway that we are on right now, we get to levels where you are looking at the total loss of reef structures worldwide,” Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said. “Under those conditions you just don't have corals. You also lose 50% of the fish and other species that live in and around corals.”

Prof Hoegh-Guldberg maintained there are compelling reasons to indicate that reefs everywhere are in trouble. “The evidence suggests reef systems are becoming more brittle, as a result of bleaching, disease, and the effects of acidifying water,” he said.

Recent indications that sea levels are rising at nearly twice the rate predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also poses a risk to coral reefs.

“Healthy corals can keep up with these sorts of sea level rises, but some reefs which are damaged or weakened may be at risk of drowning by being thrust into depths where they can no longer get the light they need for photosynthesis,” explained Prof Hoegh-Guldberg.

Localised stresses, such as fishing, can cause irreparable damage to coral reefs. Over-fishing removes key species from the marine food chain, and certain methods employed to catch fish can be highly damaging. More than 15 countries use cyanide fishing, a method that involves dumping cyanide onto coral reefs in order to stun fish for easy gathering. The cyanide poisons the reef as well as the fish.

Blast or dynamite fishing, which involves using explosives to kill fish, is widespread in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa.  Blast fishing has a devastating effect on reefs, ripping them apart and causing nearby colonies to bleach. According to the NOAA, more than 40 countries allow blasting.

The NOAA has stated that intensified coral disease also bears strong links to an increase in run-off pollution and sediments from the land. Sediment run-offs from farms, construction and deforestation can kill corals by clogging their mouths or by blocking sunlight. Likewise, pollutants and sewage entering the water increase the nutrients on which harmful algae thrive.

Researchers are now proposing groundbreaking new techniques to enhance the thermal tolerance of corals, and help them to survive dangerously warming oceans. Coral reef scientist, Dr Andrew Baker, established in 2001 that coral species can be flexible in terms of the types of algae they host, and that some of the algae are more heat tolerant than others. Corals with the latter type of algae are more resistant to bleaching caused by rising temperatures.

Dr Baker now plans to develop practical techniques for boosting the natural abundance of heat-tolerant algae inside reef corals, and pinpoint the specific factors that make certain corals more resistant to bleaching.

While reefs are faced with many threats, climate change represents the most acute risk to their survival. The work of Dr Baker, and others offers a window of hope that the obliteration of coral reefs may yet be prevented. For such efforts to make any real difference, however, changes are necessary in every area that contributes to coral reef destruction.

The enormous import of conserving and protecting coral reefs is being recognised in some quarters. The year 2008 has been declared the ‘International Year of the Reef’, a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the threats facing coral reefs and their inestimable value.

In conjunction with this, renowned jewellery company Tiffany & Co Foundation, as well as a number of other fashion and home designers, announced their pledge not to sell real coral as part of a ‘Too Precious to Wear’ campaign, asserting that it is the product of a living animal, just as ivory is, and harvesting it is unsustainable.

While fashion and home décor certainly aren’t the main perpetrators involved in damaging coral reefs, their role is unwarranted, unnecessary and avoidable, and should be eliminated entirely.

All over the world, coral reefs are facing death. The impact of their loss could be catastrophic to the marine ecosystem, and the billions of people that depend on it.

Coral reef extinction is not an inevitability to which we are resigned. It is both avoidable and preventable. The next few years will be critical to their survival. It’s a race against time that we can’t afford to lose.