Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T15:08:40.702Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Environmental Impact of Coral Mining on Coral Reefs in the Maldives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Barbara E. Brown  and
Richard P. Dunne
Barbara E. Brown
Affiliation:
Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology and Director of MSc in Tropical Coastal Management, Department of Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, England, UK
Richard P. Dunne
Affiliation:
Consultant in International Law and Environmental Planning, Tropical Coastal Management Consultants, 7 Kingsley Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE6 5AN, England, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Demand of the construction industry for coral rock in the Maldives will soon reach the limit of supply capacity using existing collection techniques. It is estimated that, at the current rate of consumption, the supply of living coral rock from inner atoll ‘faros’ in North Malé will be exhausted within 30 years. Current mining practice has already necessitated the collection of living coral rock from outer atoll ‘faros’ which actually protect the integrity of the islands against the erosive influences of monsoon storms.

Biological surveys of mined sites (compared with controls where no mining activity has taken place) indicate a dramatic reduction in coral variety and abundance and in some cases an almost total depletion of living coral after mining. At intensively-mined sites, diversity and abundance of coral-reef fishes is also markedly reduced, with some reef species commonly used as baitfish entirely absent. The time taken for reefs to recover from mechanical damage has been shown by other research work to be extremely variable, with some cases showing no recovery in some circumstances. Shallow-water reefs that have been colonized by slow-growing ‘massive’ corals, such as those which have been mined in the Maldives, may take a minimum of 50 years to recover to their former state—under optimum conditions.

Observations on mined reefs in the Maldives show that recovery over the last 10 years has been minimal, and therefore suggest that recovery times may be much in excess of 50 years. Indeed many of these reefs may not recover at all unless some attempts are made to re-establish corals at these sites. It is also clear from the study of reclaimed and dredged sites and those where less-intensive mining has taken place, that regeneration of corals is occurring. It is quite probable that the rate of recovery is dependent on the intensity of the disturbance which initially took place.

Alternative building materials are available in the form of concrete blocks. Use of these blocks is more cost-effective than use of coral rock; however, there is a lack of any quality control, which would be needed to promote the widespread use of concrete blocks as a substitute for coral. Recently, recommendations have been approved by the Government of Maldives for the execution of a feasibility study on mining an inner atoll faro which could potentially provide building material for as long as the next 500 years.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Summer 1988 , pp. 159 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bagnis, R. (1987). Ciguatera fish poisoning: An objective witness of the coral reef stress. Pp. 241–53 in Human Impacts on Coral Reefs: Facts and Recommendations (Ed. Salvat, B.). Antenne Mus. EPHE French Polynesia. [Not available for checking.]Google Scholar
Done, T.J. (1987). Simulation of the effects of Acanthaster planci on the population structure of massive corals in the genus Porites: Evidence of population resilience? Coral Reefs, 6, pp. 75–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigg, R.W. (1983). Community structure, succession and development of coral reefs in Hawaii. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 11, pp. 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigg, R.W. & Maragos, J. (1974). Recolonization of hermatypic corals on submerged lava flows in Hawaii. Ecology, 55, pp. 387–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedley, C. (1925). The natural destruction of a coral reef. Sci. Rep. Gt Barrier Reef Comm., 1, pp. 35–40.Google Scholar
Loya, Y. (1972). Community structure and species diversity of hermatypic corals at Eilat, Red Sea. Mar. Biol., 13, pp. 100–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maguire, L.A. & Porter, J.W. (1977). A spatial model of growth and competition strategies in coral communities. Ecol. Modelling, 3, pp. 249–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, R.G. (1981). Recovery and recolonization of coral reefs. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 4, pp. 105–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, J.W. (1974). Community structure of coral reefs on opposite sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Science, 186, pp. 543–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rainford, E.H. (1925). Destruction of the Whitsunday Group fringing reefs. Aust. Mus. Mag., 2, pp. 175–7.Google Scholar
Rosen, B.R. (1975). The distribution of reef corals. Rep. Underwat. Ass., 1, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Spencer-Davies, P., Stoddart, D.R. & Sigee, D.C. (1971). Reef forms of Addu Atoll, Maldives Islands. Symp. Zool. Soc. Lond., 28, pp. 217–59.Google Scholar
Stephenson, W., Endean, R. & Bennett, I. (1958). An ecological survey of the marine fauna of Low Isles, Queensland. Aust. J. Mar. Freshw. Res., 9, pp. 261–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood-Jones, F. (1907). On the growth-forms and supposed species in corals. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 2, pp. 518–56.Google Scholar