Catlin Launches Next Seaview Survey for Caribbean, Bermuda Coral Reefs
Catlin Group Limited announced the launch of its next “Seaview Survey,” which it described as a “significant expansion of its study of coral reefs with a new campaign in the Caribbean and Bermuda.” The survey is the latest to be sponsored by the Catlin Group, following its initial exploration of the Arctic and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Catlin said the program would “significantly widen opportunities for ocean, coral and climate scientists to understand the changes occurring within the region.” It will begin in Belize and then “moves on to Mexico, Anguilla, St. Vincent, Guadeloupe, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas in the coming months. The Catlin Seaview Survey will also explore the coral reefs off Bermuda in September.
“Coral reefs in the Caribbean and Atlantic, like elsewhere, are under growing environmental stress,” the bulletin explained. “Being highly sensitive to environmental change, corals are considered the ‘canary in the coal mine’ when it comes to impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. Exploitation, pollution, warming waters and increased storms linked with climate change has caused the massive loss of corals across the Caribbean over the past 50 years.”
Coral reefs are also a part of the economic structure for many coastal communities. Their loss “has long-term implications for Caribbean economies given their dependence on reefs and other marine ecosystems for goods, services and economic welfare.
“According to the World Resources Institute, the value of shoreline protection provided by Caribbean reefs is between $700 million and $2.2 billion per year. Within the next 50 years, coral degradation and death could lead to annual losses totaling $140 million to $420 million.”
The insurance group’s chief executive Stephen Catlin said: “We are committed to understanding the future risks posed by climate change. It is not only important that scientists have access to this valuable data, but insurance companies such as ours must understand the impact that significant changes to our environment will have on local economies.”
Such a study is badly needed, as coral reefs globally “are in an unprecedented state of decline due to pollution, overfishing and climate change.” The bulletin cited a prediction from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which concluded that there will be “increasing frequency and severity of mass bleaching events over the coming years.
Catlin described the study as a “race against time to survey the coral reefs of the world,” explaining that the “Caribbean serves as an ideal launching point to take the campaign global because of the stress already experienced by its reefs.”
