For anyone who’s ever been near coral reefs, the necessity to protect them is not a new story: these impressive structures need certain conditions to develop, but human actions tend to ignore that often, and the result is a constant quest from environmental agencies to open our eyes and raise alarm signals on the rapid decline the coral reefs are facing.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s report on the matter is by no means surprising, but rather disturbing: coral reefs are greatly endangered by global warming, which caused the conditions they live in to change.

Coral reefs are undoubtedly a life source for a large percent of marine species, and their continuous and steady decline is clearly a bad sign, as it is likely to trigger a chain reaction which will affect not only marine ecosystems, but human economy as well.

The threat extends to all coral reefs, even the ones in more remote locations, but talking about the coral reefs under the U.S. jurisdiction, especially those adjacent to populated areas, NOAA found half of them to be in “poor” or “fair” condition.

The report shows how human activities, such as coastal development, fishing, sedimentation and recreational use, trigger a series of unfortunate events in the marine ecosystem, threatening even the most remote reefs.

Sedimentation is one of the effects derived from land exploitation (agricultural terrains, coastal road development and even harbor construction) which supports one of coral reefs’ natural enemies known as algal blooms, which form due to an excess in nutrients. As the algae population spreads, it also affects the quality of the water and may contribute to diseases, which in the end greatly affect the coral structures and the marine populations living there.

Among the climate-related effects, NOAA’s report mentions coral bleaching (which is a phenomenon produced by the rising temperatures at the surface of the water, which causes the corals to lose their color and even die), disease and ocean acidification (which is another effect of the increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere).

In addition to that, poorly managed land development, pollution and illegal fishing also pose serious threats to these delicate ecosystems, which are easily destroyable.

A team of over 270 scientists contributed to the NOAA report, making assessments on ecosystems from the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, covering coral reefs in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Navassa Island, southeast Florida, the Florida Keys, Flower Garden Banks, the Main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, the Pacific Remote Islands, the Republic of the Marshall islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Republic of Palau.

The 569-page report revealed that Pacific reefs appear to be healthier than Atlantic ones; however, that is by no means reassuring, as climate change, illegal fishing and marine debris are likely to step in and change the matter into worse.

According to the authors of the report, the conditions of the U.S. coral reefs have been declining in the past decades. More than that, some coral species – Elkhorn and Staghorn corals - have been declared endangered under the Endangered Species Act, even though the 2005 report didn’t indicate it.

Agencies around the world fight to protect corals worldwide, NOAA included. Estimations have shown that almost 60 percent of coral reefs around the world face extinction due to human-related activities. NOAA’s 2008 report is the third in a series meant to raise awareness on the evolution of coral reef ecosystems at both local and national scales.