Taiwan's coral reefs have been severely damaged by water pollution and human recreational activities over the past five years, a local marine biology research institute said yesterday.
"Most of the shallow water along our seashores has been severely polluted by land development," said Fan Tung-yung, assistant research fellow at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.
Fan said sedimentation and nutrification were responsible for the death and bleaching of Taiwan's coral reefs.
Sedimentation occurs when sand from construction projects muddies the water and deprives coral of much-needed light, while nutrification causes algae to grow quicker than coral, thus competing with coral for resources and eventually killing it.
Environmental pollution first started to affect Taiwan's coral reefs 10 years ago, but the situation has become severe in the past five years, Fan said.
The researcher also blamed human recreational activities by tourists, such as diving or water skiing, for the death of the coral.
The marine biology institute in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County started a program two years ago to research the island's coral reefs and help them recover, succeeding in growing 80 species of coral for display, research and later release into the wild.
"We will move some of the coral whenever the seawater in the field has been improved or cleaned," Fan said. "In the short term though, for the next several years I cannot see any improvement in the situation."
The institute mainly grows common coral species from southern Taiwan and focuses its research on coral ecology in the Nanwan Bay area of the Kenting National Park, Fan said.
He said that damage caused by the recent oil spill to the Lungkeng coral reefs at the eastern part of the national park would be restricted to that part only, though damage to marine life in its inter-tidal areas there would be severe.
The Greek-registered cargo ship Amorgos sank in January, spilling over 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil into the water.
The waters off Taiwan are home to around 350 species of coral, including stony coral, soft coral and Gorgonians, or sea fans.
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