Human Threats to Coral Reefs & Coral Damage (Continued)

In areas where standard military weapons testing takes place, studies on the reefs have shown them to be in pristine condition. This could be because as the military occupy these regions, detrimental human activities such as fishing, sedimentation and pollution cannot take place without civilian human presence and so, despite minor habitat damage from explosions, coral organisms can thrive (Spalding et al., 2005). Differing results from studies on weapons testing have lead to no definite conclusion as to the impact such actions have had, and are having, on coral reefs. Further investigations need to be carried out in order to increase our knowledge on the effects of weapons testing on coral reefs.