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any industries, besides tourism, are harmed by the loss of coral reefs. Fisheries are shut down because of multiple species extinction due to overfishing, water temperatures increasing, and pollution in the water.
The fishing industry will collapse quickly followed by businesses that are connected with fishing (packing and distributing companies, boat making companies, restaurants as well as consumers who now have to find an alternative.)
Primary productivity is affected by the loss of coral reefs because “many other invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants live in close association to the stony corals, with tight resource coupling and recycling, allowing coral reefs to have extremely high productivity and biodiversity, such that they are referred to as ‘the Tropical Rainforests of the Oceans’ (6).” Reefs are extremely biodiverse, their death causes the death of many other species that depend on them for survival.
oral reefs are home to an abundant variety of living creatures—fish, turtles, sharks, eels, crabs, shrimps, urchins, sponges, and algae to name a few.
First the coral and the microorganisms that live in the coral will die. Then shelled organisms, followed closely by invertebrates and fish. Soon larger aquatic species like seals and sharks will be affected, as well as sea birds. And finally the effects will reach humans.
Humans can adapt to changing climate more quickly than coral, but we will not be able to adapt fast enough to acid oceans and toxic air.
http://images.wisegeek.com/pink-coral.jpg