Bonaire’s coral reef is disappearing, researchers warn

The coral reef around Bonaire has fallen to about 5% of the seabed, down from more than 60% fifty years ago, researchers told broadcaster NOS on Monday.

The figures come from fieldwork on the Dutch Caribbean island that has not yet been published and which the researchers describe as a first analysis. A Wageningen Marine Research report published last year put average coral cover on Bonaire at under 10% and said algae now dominate the reefs.

The reef is central to a climate case Greenpeace Nederland brought against the Dutch state. Research behind that case found the coral helps shield Bonaire from flooding and that part of the island will be lost as sea levels rise.

The Hague district court ruled in January that Dutch climate policy breached the human rights of Bonaire’s residents and treated them unequally with people in the European Netherlands.

It gave ministers six months to quantify how much greenhouse gas the country can still emit, 18 months to turn that into binding targets, and until 2030 to produce a climate adaptation plan for the island.

The cabinet is appealing but remains bound by the judgment.

Coral researcher Erik Meesters of Wageningen University and Research said warming seawater was the main cause, worsened by a severe El Niño, and that higher temperatures also made coral more prone to disease.

Fast-growing species are surviving, he said, but the large reef-building corals that can reach ten metres are disappearing.

Bonaire’s economy depends heavily on diving tourism. The organisation Reef Renewal said it has planted 20,000 pieces of new coral around the island, while acknowledging the scale is not enough to solve the problem.