Alarm over shrinking coral reefs in South China Sea

China's economic boom has seen its coral reefs shrink by at least 80 per cent over the past 30 years, a joint Australian study found yesterday, with researchers describing "grim" levels of damage and loss.

Scientists from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology said their survey of Chinese and South China Sea reefs showed alarming degradation.

"We found that coral abundance has declined by at least 80 per cent over the past 30 years on coastal fringing reefs along the Chinese mainland and adjoining Hainan Island ," said the study, published in the latest edition of Conservation Biology. "On offshore atolls and archipelagos claimed by six countries in the South China Sea, coral cover has declined from an average of greater than 60 per cent to around 20 per cent within the past 10 to 15 years."

Coastal development, pollution and overfishing linked to the country's aggressive economic expansion were the major drivers, the authors said, describing a "grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction".

They continued: "China's ongoing economic expansion has exacerbated many wicked environmental problems, including widespread habitat loss due to coastal development, unsustainable levels of fishing and pollution."

Coral loss in the South China Sea - where reefs stretch across about 30,000 square kilometres - was compounded by poor governance stemming from competing territorial claims.