this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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Wildlife Conservation and Protection

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First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals (news.mongabay.com)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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  • A new study published in the journal Marine Biodiversity delivers the first global IUCN Red List assessments for 22 cold-water coral species in the Northeast Atlantic.
  • More than 30% of the species are at risk of extinction due to bottom-contact fishing, habitat destruction and climate change, with white coral (Desmophyllum pertusum) listed as globally vulnerable.
  • Experts say the findings highlight gaps in conservation, especially for deep-sea species often excluded from monitoring and protection efforts.
  • The study’s release comes at a key moment, as international talks continue under the Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty to improve high seas biodiversity protections.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Bottom-contact fishing, like deep-sea trawling and dredging, has emerged as the top threat, according to the study’s authors. “These can cause massive damage to the benthos,” Sigwart said, referring to life on or near the seafloor. “Corals, even sea pens, have hard skeletons that are broken by the impacts from these types of fishing gear.”

We may not be able to stop climate change in time to prevent catastrophic changes to ecosystems, and we may not be able to clean up all of the pollution in the ocean, but at least this problem is easy to solve.