Coral reefs safe
Added to website: 18 April 2005
Coral buffeted by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December last year withstood the onslaught, according to an investigation of reefs in the Andaman Sea. The discovery contradicts anecdotal reports suggesting that the region’s reefs had been decimated by the disaster.
Last week, Coral Cay Conservation, an international organisation based in London, published an assessment of the damage to the coral reefs of the Surin Islands Marine National Park, a group of five jungle-covered, granite islands about 60 kilometres off the western coast of Thailand.
Coral Cay’s team of marine scientists, led by researcher James Comley, measured damage to 28 kilometres of reef in February and March. They reported instances of upturned or broken coral, coral covered with sediment and coral displaced by the collapse of a reef.
