Vast+coral+reefs+killed+off+by+Sumatran+earthquake

=**Vast coral reefs killed off by Sumatran earthquake**=


 * Reuters in** **Jakarta**
 * Friday April 13, 2007**
 * The Guardian**

A strong earthquake that struck Indonesia's Sumatra Island two years ago has killed off some of the largest areas of coral ever documented, a study by scientists from two conservation groups found.

The quake itself killed nearly 1,000 people on Nias Island off the western coast of Sumatra island.

The scientists, who surveyed 35 sites on the coastline, found that the earthquake had raised the island of Simeulue near Nias by up to 1.2 meters (3ft 11in), exposing most of the coral reefs ringing the island over about 190 miles of sea floor.

The scientists were from the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the government-backed Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

"This is a story of mass mortality on a scale rarely observed," said Dr Stuart Campbell of the society's Indonesia marine program.

"In contrast to other threats like coral bleaching, none of the corals uplifted by the earthquake have survived."

He added, however, that some sites in Simeulue were now recovering. "At many sites, the worst-affected species are beginning to decolonize the shallow reef areas. The reefs appear to be returning to what they looked like before the earthquake, although the process may take many years," he said.

Dr Andrew Baird of the Australian coral research centre said the earthquake had provided a one-off chance to study such a phenomenon. "This is a unique opportunity to document a process that occurs maybe once a century and promises to provide new insight into coral recovery processes that until now we could only explore on fossil reefs," said Dr Baird.

The team said it had documented, for the first time in Indonesian waters, extensive damage to reefs caused by the crown-of-thorns starfish, a coral predator that has inflicted huge damage on reefs in Australia and other parts of the world.

"People monitoring Indonesian coral reefs now have another threat to watch out for, and not all reef damage should be immediately attributed to human influences," said Dr Baird.

Indonesia has some of the richest reef environments in the world, but many have also suffered from human interference.

The government has banned the use of chemicals such as cyanide and dynamite to catch fish, but such practices still continue across a nation made up of more than 17,000 islands.