“People around the world depend on healthy coral reefs and the services they provide for food, income, recreation, and protection from storms,” said Jennifer Koss, director of NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program. “It is possible to turn the tide on the losses we are seeing, but doing so relies on us as a global community making more environmentally conscious decisions in our everyday lives.”
This is the first report since 2008, which fills a significant gap in contemporary understanding of global status and trends in coral reefs. The analysis used data from nearly two million observations from more than 12,000 collection sites in 73 countries over a time span of 40 years (1978-2019), representing the work of over 300 scientists.
For more details on the report, please visit the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.