Coral Reef Cover, Biodiversity, and Fish Catches Have Declined by Half Since the 1950s

[Grim Reaper 6]

 

""After putting it all together, the data show that the global coverage of living corals has declined by about half since the 1950s. So, too, has the capacity of coral reefs to provide ecosystem services. They find that the catches of fishes on the coral reef reached its peak nearly two decades ago and has been in decline ever since despite an increase in fishing effort. The catch per unit effort (CPUE), often used as an indication of changes in biomass, is now 60% lower than it was in 1950.""

""To explore these various aspects of the reef ecosystem, they combined datasets from coral reef surveys, estimated coral-reef-associated biodiversity, fishery catches and effort, fishery impacts on food web structure, and Indigenous consumption of coral-reef-associated fish to analyze global and country level trends in ecosystem services.""

https://scitechdaily.com/coral-reef-cover-biodiversity-and-fish-catches-have-declined-by-half-since-the-1950s/