Rough seas: One-third of coral reef species face extinction

— -- "I'd like to be

under the sea,

in an octopus's garden

in the shade."

Or so the Beatles put it back in the good ole' days, before things got really rough in Neptune's realm.

Amid a host of problems for the world's oceans, last week brought a reminder that coral reefs, the sentinel species for measuring the health of the seas, are taking a beating. One-third of all coral reef species face extinction worldwide, reports the latest study, released by Science magazine, with more species looking threatened.

"Whether corals actually go extinct this century will depend on the continued severity of climate change, the extent of other environmental disturbances, and the ability of corals to adapt," say the study authors, led by Kent Carpenter of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Coral extinctions "will threaten the geologic structure of reefs and their coastal protection function, and have huge economic effects on food security for hundreds of millions of people dependent on reef fish," concludes the study.

The news comes with the closing of the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, a worldwide gathering of coral experts that takes place every four years. Not much of the news from the meeting was good:

•Coral diseases, including cancer-like growths in Hawaiian and Samoan reefs, are on the increase in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Oceans, according to Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology research.

•African dust linked to Caribbean coral disease contains six pesticides dangerous to humans as well as the reefs, reported U.S. Geological Survey scientists.

•Tropical islands such as Fiji, the Marianas and American Samoa have reported less than half of the fish caught from reefs since 1950, according to a University of British Columbia project.

Nearly the only bright spot was a report of a newly-discovered reef off Brazil still teeming with marine life.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration kicked off the week by reporting that one-half of all shallow-water U.S. reefs were in fair or poor condition, with more headed away from healthy status in coming years. "Certainly the situation is just as bad or worse in most of the rest of the world," said NOAA's Mark Monaco in an interview.