Global warming starving fish species to death

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=344612&ssid=26&sid=ENV Sydney, Dec 28: Fish species in the Great Barrier Reef are starving to death because climate change is killing off their food source, an environmental study conducted over five years by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) has revealed. The study found that rising sea temperatures had bleached more than 30 per cent of the world's coral reefs, as a result of which, smaller fish which normally feeds on live coral are dying off. This could throw the fish food chain out of balance, and consequently hinder local fishing and tourism operations, the study said. According to CoECRS senior researcher Morgan Pratchett, this is only a glimpse of the larger to coral reef due to rising temperature. If sea temperatures continue their warming patters, the coral damage could double by 2030, he said. “The starving fish fail to breed and fail to migrate to thriving reefs. Fish can be very territorial and it may be hard for refugee fish, which have lost their reef, to relocate elsewhere because the locals will try to keep them out," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying. “Bleaching causes the corals to shed their natural bacteria and die. Ours and other studies indicate that when coral bleaching occurs, affecting up to 10 per cent of the reef, it affects the abundance of nearly two-thirds of the fish species on that reef. As the damage rises to 20 per cent and above, there is a marked decline in the richness of fish species on the reef and the losses can last for years," he said. He however, said coral-feeding fish would return if the corals recovered.