#Status of Coral Reefs 2002 - International Coral Reef Action Network

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2002
There is a clear signal in coral cover on the Lakshadweep Islands from the 1998 coral mortality
event. Corals died off, and were followed by growth of soft corals and macroalgae (almost identical
graphs), but now there are clear signs of coral recovery. From Rohan Arthur.
In the Lakshadweep Islands, 95 hard coral species were reported prior to the bleaching in
1998, which destroyed between 43% and 87% of the live corals. Then coral cover declined
to about 10% around Kadmat Island, and current coral cover in shallow areas is about 1%.
Now fleshy algae dominate in back reef areas, but not on fore-reef slopes. The atolls
suffered different levels of coral mortality; Kadmat and Agatti were severely damaged with
new evidence of rapid recovery, while Kavarati was affected less in 1998 and not much has
changed since 2000. Reef recovery is better on the western side of the atolls e.g. many new
coral colonies were observed in 2000 on the eastern side of the islands, but were lost by
2002, due to the higher wave energy. So far 603 species of reef and oceanic fish species are
known from the Lakshadweeps.
Coral reefs in the Gulf of Kutch occur around 34 islands and grow under extreme
environmental conditions of high salinity, low tides and large variations in temperatures.
Most corals (42 hard coral species; 10 soft corals) grow on the northern side in the
stronger currents, whereas on the East, there are mostly dead corals. Corals are also found
on rocky reefs along the Malvan coast of India about 35km from Mumbai. Coral
distribution is sparse with about 1-2 colonies per m 2 , suspended sediment loads are high
and the salinity often decreases to