Conclusion (Continued)

There are extensive management issues that must be addressed in order to reduce coral reef damage. Education and communication are perhaps the most important, as at present many people are ignorant to the effects of, for example, pollution, climate change and overfishing. Educating communities will allow changes to be made locally to the management of crucial issues such as those explained earlier.

In a recent survey amongst 286 scientists (2007), reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions was ranked as the second most effective change to be made to help improve the health of coral reefs. This is because it seems probable human behaviour resulting in CO2 emissions is at least partly responsible for the slowly increasing global temperatures and extreme environmental conditions that impact upon reefs via bleaching. This is a global problem however and requires participation from many countries in order to have a significant impact.