Dilemma of the Caribbean

ELKHORN coral looks just like elk antlers. With its complex, large branches, this important reef-building coral in the Caribbean is haven to numerous reef species. But, not any more. The Caribbean has lost 90 per cent of the coral in 15 years. Apart from human activity and warming of seas, a disease called white pox is blamed for making elkhorn coral an endangered species.

Coral tradition loses shape

Disease, bleaching events killed corals in the Caribbean caribbean coral reefs have lost their complex structure and flattened over the past 40 years said a study by University of East Anglia in the UK. The marine population and fishing industry that depend on them feel the impact of this change the most. The

If stingrays had lawyers

According to report

Action delayed: Even a 2oC rise above the pre-industrial levels would lead to 20-40 per cent of the Amazon dying within 100 years, said climate change experts from the UK. The study will appear in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Sun-block lotions threaten corals

sunscreens almost always figure in a swimmer's paraphernalia. While it protects the skin from ultraviolet rays of the sun, it also causes considerable damage to marine life. If the idea appears far-fetched, consider this: a recent study has found that chemicals in sunscreen products threaten about 10 per cent of coral reefs worldwide. Tropical reefs die due to bleaching. Scientists at the Polytechnic University, Italy, who carried out the study, say chemical compounds in

In short

>> Chadians could go hungry despite bumper crops, notes an 'emergency' alert issued by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. Though crops have grown well this season, a food crisis could be on the cards if farmers are forced to flee before the harvest because of an upsurge in ethnic violence in Eastern Chad, the alert said.

PUERTO RICO

A Puerto Rican hotel has been directed to pay a large sum of money as penalty for discharging sewage into the Caribbean Sea. Arnold Benus, the president of Copamarina Beach Resort in Guanica, was ordered to serve three years of probation and pay a penalty of us $30,000. Along with this, Concho Corporation, which is responsible for the resort's management, was ordered to pay a fine of us $300,000.

New Caribbean agenda

nine nations have ratified a historic agreement to protect the Caribbean Sea flora and fauna under the Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (spaw) Protocol. The protocol is now legally binding for these nine member nations, namely Saint Lucia, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Panama, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

WEST INDIES

The Caribbean's account for three per cent of world trade in bananas, which are cultivated by small farmers and sold to the European Union (eu). However, not all the profits from the trade of Caribbean bananas go to small farmers. Fyffes, a Dublin-based mediator company dominating the uk market, has a finger in most of these banana pies.