New Delhi: The Coral Triangle Day is celebrated on June 9 every year to protect rich resources of the epicenter of marine biodiversity. It is a biologically complex marine ecosystem on the earth.
What is The Coral Triangle? Along with the Congo Basin and the Amazon Rainforest, the Coral Triangle is one of the three largest ecological systems on Earth and the hub of marine variety. Geographically, it spans six nations in Asia and the Pacific: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste. This immense ocean stretch is known as the "CT6" countries.
What is Coral Triangle Day About? This day encourages people to know about the Coral Triangle located in the Western Pacific Ocean which spreads across economic zones of six countries. Coral Triangle has the world's coral reefs and is home of large species of reef fish and several others like sharks, dugongs, dolphins and whales.
Informing about Coral Triangle Day, Irwin Quagmire Wart posted on his social media site X, “On 9 June Coral Triangle Day celebrates the rich resources of this epicenter of marine biodiversity. The day encourages us to learn more about the Coral Triangle. There are three mega ecological complexes on our planet. The Coral Triangle is located in the Western Pacific Ocean.”
A large number of coral reefs are at high risk because of several reasons such as overfishing, climate change and industry in this zone. To safeguard the Coral Triangle, neighbouring countries organise multiple events and programmes on this day in which they hold beach cleanings, awareness campaigns and exhibitions.
Overfishing: The threat to the coral triangle is overfishing which exists for decades. In several zones reefs are at risk because of overfishing.
Climate Change: It is a global issue and experts are trying to find solutions to deal with the situation. It is expected that the temperature of the sea surface is one of the main challenges of the coral triangle.
Fish fences: This type of fences damages the ecosystem in which fishes are placed.
Destructive Fishing: This method of fishing is a threat for coral reefs which harms fish populations.
Non-target fishing: It is said that millions of pounds of non-target species are caught in nets like whales, dolphins and turtles, later they are discarded back into the ocean.
