Overharvesting Threatens Sea Cucumbers' Role To Keep Coral Healthy, Study Warns

Researchers discovered that overharvesting of sea cucumbers can affect the health of corals, making them more vulnerable to diseases.

Understanding the potential threats is crucial to save them from decline, and develop mitigation or protection efforts. According to a National Ocean Service report, human-caused activities have significantly impacted the coral population. The report showed that corals have suffered from the following threats:

• Pollution
• Illegal fishing practices
• Coral mining
• Climate change
• Overfishing

Overharvesting of Sea Cucumbers Impact on Coral Reefs' Health

In the new report by the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers raised concerns about the overharvesting of sea cucumbers that can harm the coral reefs. The species play a crucial role in the following:

• keeping healthy corals undersea
• Cleaning reef sediments to avoid microbial pathogens

As a result, researchers analyzed the important role of sea cucumbers in coral protection and health in the Pacific. The research findings were published in Nature Communications journal, highlighting that coral diseases have become a significant problem.

The study found that coral diseases can emerge or harm more when sea cucumbers are overharvested. The species are crucial to ensuring clean reef sediments and preventing the spread of microbial pathogens. The decline of sea cucumbers is bad news for coral reefs.

"We knew that removing big predators has cascading effects that commonly change how ecosystems are organized and how they function," Mark Hay, Regents' Chair and the Harry and Anna Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said, as quoted in a report.

In addition, the threat of overharvesting threatens the crucial role of sea cucumbers, making it more difficult for the species to reproduce and recover.

The study emphasized that the emergence of sea cucumbers can prevent possible coral diseases based on the experiments.

"If you remove all the scum suckers in the great fish tank of Earth, you're going to get a dirty tank eventually. People have paid lip service to the idea that sea cucumbers could be important for a long time, but we didn't know the scale of their importance until now," Cody Clements, a research scientist, added.

Also Read: Climate Change Threatens Cold-Water Corals in Deep Sea Due to Warming Trend

Pollution and Climate Change Threats to Coral Reefs

In a recent report, climate change and pollution have been alarming threats to coral populations. Pollution can produce hazardous chemicals that can kill coral species.

In addition, rising ocean temperatures can affect coral survival, which can suffer from coral bleaching or health decline. As a result, climate change mitigation is essential to avoid the decline of corals.

Related Article: Mass Coral Bleaching Imminent in Next Few Years Amid Record-Breaking Marine Heat Waves

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