TOKYO: Japan’s biggest coral reef has not recovered from bleaching due to rising sea temperatures, with only one per cent of the reef in a healthy condition, according to a government study.
The overall volume of coral in Sekisei Lagoon in southwestern Japan near Okinawa had already plunged by 80 per cent since the late 1980s due to rising water temperatures and damage caused by coral-eating starfish.
Now only 1.4 per cent of the lagoon, which stretches over 67.89 square kilometres, is in a healthy condition, the environment ministry said, after it was hit by mass bleaching in 1998, 2001, 2007 and most recently 2016.
“If coral reefs don’t recover, it means a loss of rich fauna for a variety of creatures and would have grave impact on the ecosystem in the region,” ministry official Chihiro Kondo said on Friday.
For the first time since 2008, the ministry analysed satellite photos and information from some 1,000 monitoring sites for the Sekisei Lagoon and two other reefs around the Ishigaki and Iriomote islets in Okinawa.
The ratio of healthy corals stood at 14.6 per cent in 1991 but dropped to 0.8 per cent.
Two other neighbouring lagoons had similar results with the ratio of healthy areas around one per cent. — AFP
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