Sewage Is Threatening Coral Reefs Around the World, Even in Marine Protected Areas

Photo Credit and Excerpt from insideclimatenews.org

Marine protected areas are designed to conserve coral reefs and other ocean ecosystems by restricting human activity within their boundaries. But most don’t account for one of the most severe and widespread threats to marine life that originates on land: sewage.

A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the University of Queensland in Australia found that more than 70 percent of marine protected areas worldwide are contaminated by untreated, or poorly treated, wastewater.

In places with extensive coral reefs, like the Coral Triangle—a 2 million square mile marine area spanning six countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea—contamination is even more widespread.

According to the study, published this month in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management, more than 90 percent of coastal protected areas in the Coral Triangle are affected by high levels of sewage pollution—up to 10 times highter than in nearby unprotected waters.