Hawaii – Coral Reef Disease Hits Kaneohe Bay – Kansas City infoZine

Kaneohe Bay, HI – Rice corals provide valuable habitat, shelter, and foraging grounds for a variety of tropical marine fish and invertebrates and provide the fundamental structure of coral reefs. Rice corals are especially important to Hawaii’s marine ecosystems because they are one of the more abundant coral reef species in the region.

Thus, loss of corals can have negative effects on many other reef-associated organisms. In fact, losing a coral reef is similar to losing a rainforest, with many species reliant on that ecosystem for survival.

In addition, coral reefs in Hawaii are an important source of…Read Entire Article Here

January 22, 2012

image – U.S. Geological Service