[Animals] Sharks and rays face an unprecedented 'extinction crisis' in coral reefs

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Between sunscreen and microplastics, coral reefs are facing the worst extinction on record in contemporary history.
Human beings imagine the end of the world as the collapse of civilization. Hollywood paints it as the collapse of the Statue of Liberty, and other icons that the United States consecrates in its collective imagination. However, for sharks and rays in Fiji this catastrophe is already happening: the extinction of coral reefs is already happening, and it is potentially irreversible.

A fair parallel would be seeing collapsed buildings after an unholy cyclone. According to a study published in Nature, X's coral reefs suffer the worst deterioration in recent history. To the point that 60% of the sharks and rays that depend on this ecosystem could disappear in this century.

Also read: Sharks are functionally extinct in most coral reefs

3 main axes of destruction

This is not the first alert that the scientific community issues about the situation of sharks in reefs. In December 2020, a study also published in Nature analyzed 371 reefs from around the world. After compiling the data and comparing the health of the ecosystems, the researchers found that sharks are "functionally extinct" in nearly 20 percent of the reefs studied.

Currently, the main threats driving the extinction of coral reefs are the following:

overfishing
Pollution
Climate change
These three axes of destruction are leaving a quarter of the marine species that exist on the planet without habitat. The case of sharks and rays is delicate, since they play an important role in these delicate ecosystems that "cannot be filled by other species," explains Samantha Sherman, from Simon Fraser University in Canada and the wildlife group TRAFFIC International. .

Above all, because sharks are the main predators of these marine ecosystems. In contrast, rays are classified as 'filter feeders', regulating the po[CENSORED]tion of species that are in their daily diet.

More context: The lack of oxygen in the coral reefs of the Caribbean is suffocating their species

Talking in the future is costing us the present
For the study, the researchers looked at 134 different species of sharks and rays that inhabit coral reefs. Mainly in the western part of the Atlantic, southeast of Asia. All of them have been listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as threatened or vulnerable.

For Sherman, leader of the study, industrial overfishing is the main threat for these ecosystems to survive:

"MANY SPECIES THAT WE THOUGHT WERE COMMON ARE DECLINING AT AN ALARMING RATE AND ARE BECOMEING HARDER TO FIND IN SOME PLACES," IT LAMENTED IN A COMMUNICATION.

Between sunscreen, microplastics and lack of oxygen, the color of coral reefs is fading. It can well be said that the extinction of this ecosystem resembles a necropolis of marine life.

https://www.ngenespanol.com/animales/consecuencias-de-la-extincion-de-los-arrecifes-de-coral-para-la-biosfera/