The Lesser Known Threat to Our Reefs: Coral Mining

Many of you may not have heard of coral mining as it is probably the lesser known threat facing our kaleidoscopic tropical reefs, however this is a massive issue which affects corals from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Initially the need to mine corals is a little unclear but this is a massive business with over $375 billion of coral being harvested each year for a multitude of purposes.

Coral mining is where live corals are taken out of the ocean and then used for other purposes. Often coral is turned into a material similar to limestone which is used to make bricks, road fill or cement. These delicate branches are also increasingly harvested for medical purposes as corals are at the forefront of bone graft treatments. Smaller amounts of the reef are broken off to make into jewellery or tourist souvenirs in countries which have flocks of visitors who want to visit the reefs and take a little piece of it home. Finally, the marine aquarium industry also removes fragile coral branches which are then relocated and placed into fish tanks.

There are two methods by which coral is broken off from the reef and both usually occur at low tide when the reefs are in shallower water. One technique sees miners use crowbars and sledgehammers to break off small chunks of coral branches which are then loaded onto boats, rowed to shore and sold. The other technique is even more destructive as miners use dynamite to blast appealing sections of the reef which again, allows it to be broken down into small manageable chunks. However, using dynamite has an enormous impact on the whole surrounding ecosystem, often immediately killing much of the marine life in that area and leaving a barren ocean behind. In fact, both methods of removal lead to massive losses of biodiversity in the local area. As well as coral being harvested, rocks from the reef can also be taken. Tiny coral polyps which float along in the currents and arrive at the mined area have no hard coral or rock surfaces to bind to and allow them to grow. This means that reefs struggle to rebuild themselves and even 20 years after a site has been mined, biodiversity still remains lower than that of surrounding untouched reefs. As the corals disappear, so do the other inhabitants that once lived between its branches, from fish to anemones, starfish to crabs. This means mining leaves our oceans lacking much of their extraordinary natural beauty and is bad news for any regions which rely heavily on the tourist industry. Many fishing communities can also be negatively affected as the safe havens of the reef where young fish are often raised is either lost or degraded, lowering local fish stocks. In fact, for every $10 that is made from coral mining, the local community loses around $250 worth of other services such as food and flood protection, making this industry even more unsustainable.

Often coral reefs and tropical storms go hand in hand; where one is found, the other is likely to be hanging around too. As giant corals are broken apart and their complex twisted jungle dismantled, the powerful storm waves which sweep towards the land are no longer slowed down by reef structures. Instead, waves and their energy are left to rumble freely towards the shore where they can erode coastlines, cause major flooding and damage human structures. One final impact of coral mining is sedimentation. As miners wield their iron bars and dynamite explodes underwater, the sandy seabed is disturbed causing huge clouds of sediment to spiral up through the water. Once the miners have left, this sediment calmly settles down again but often on top of remaining corals, marine plants or on the small invertebrates which live on the seafloor. This layer of sandy dust lowers temperatures, decreases sunlight levels and can inhibit the growth of many of the marine creatures which make our oceans such a mystical and awe-inspiring place.

Some of the prominent countries which mine coral are The Maldives, Indonesia and Australia. In Australia, coral is mined from the Great Barrier Reef and then burnt to produce a substance called lime. This is then spread on their farm fields to help lower their very acidic soils to allow a higher crop yield. In The Maldives, their abundant coral reefs are used to make limestone and a cement substitute which are then used to build the majority of their houses, roads and sea walls. In this remote paradise archipelago, coral is virtually the only local building material, making it often cheaper to take resources from the reef than pay for expensive imports. However, the destruction of some of their reefs is starting to strip the nation of their natural sea defences, leaving these low-lying islands even more exposed to the extreme storm events associated with climate change.

In Fiji, much of the collection of coral is done by hand and the products sold to the aquarium industry. As well as coral, locals make a living by collecting the underlying rock too which is formed from dead pieces of coral and covered in pink algae. This line of work has been growing annually since 1990 and a single full-time harvester can collect 7,500 kilograms of rock and coral each year. However, with the help of some ocean-loving ecologists, the local community has decided they have had enough of watching their beautiful home disappear before their eyes. The villagers have decided to designate an area of traditional fishing grounds as a marine protected area from which no resources are allowed to be taken. This project was a collaborative one between the villagers who love and understand their local area and conservationists who helped educate the community on the long term importance of reefs and how they can be effectively managed. This joint approach to ocean conservation seems to be working well in many parts of the world as local knowledge and passion is mixed with ocean expertise and hopefully, we will see a lot more of this collaboration in the future.

There are several ways we can try to prevent the loss of our beautiful reefs from coral mining. Firstly, stricter legislation can be introduced to ensure all miners have permits which allow them to remove only certain quantities of coral. Whilst this works on paper, in reality many poorer countries lack the resources to effectively police this. This is why community run schemes, such as that in Fiji, can be beneficial as it encourages communities to understand the importance of sustainable resource use, helping them live in harmony once again with the ocean whilst protecting their local area from outside miners. Some projects also encourage locals to switch from coral mining to more sustainable sources of income such as seaweed farming, aquaculture or eco-tourism. Marine protected areas have been great at protecting our waters, however protected areas have often only been designated once an area has been abused. In the future, we need to push for more pro-active management where our healthy, intact reefs are protected before they come to harm. Finally, we need to ensure that the corals which are taken are done so in a sustainable manner. This involves only removing a few branches from each patch of coral and making sure mined areas are left alone for several years to give the corals time to regrow.

If you live near a coral reef and want to help to preserve these unique environments, you can join volunteer conservation programmes focussed on ocean conservation, carry out beach cleans in your spare time, avoid touching any parts of the reef when you are out on the water and try to educate your local community about the importance of our reefs. If you don’t live close to a reef, there are still many things you can do to help save them. For example, you can avoid purchasing any products made from coral, make more sustainable seafood choices, reduce your carbon footprint to help limit the impacts of climate change on our oceans or simply share your love of the ocean with everyone around you to help inspire them to save our seas.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood