FSO Safer: Environmental risks (Coral Reefs)

Coral reefs contribute greatly to biodiversity. An oil spill would be devastating.

L Brown

Oct 16, 2022

[NOTE: Much of the structure and content in this series of posts is based on the Greenpeace briefing paper “FSO Safer: A Shipwreck In Slow Motion”, which in turn draws a lot on an article in Nature by Benjamin Q. Huynh et al called “Public health impacts of an imminent Red Sea oil spill.”]

Rainforests of the sea

Coral reefs have been described as the “rainforests of the sea” as they provide a natural and protective ecosystem for an estimated 25% of marine species in the world.

As a source of food, shelter, safe space for reproduction and rearing of the young, they are not only essential to a healthy population of fish, but are an important source of biodiversity for the world. They also provide other benefits, such as protecting coastlines from storms and erosion, a source of jobs, food, tourism, ecological awareness and new medicine.

But they are under threat:

Coral bleaching from warmer waters as a result of climate change leads to the decline in the population of symbiotic algae, turning the coral white and placing them under greater stress and susceptible to illness.
More acidic, warmer oceans also means that corals have a harder time building up or even maintaining their skeleton.
Other threats also include overfishing, pollution and even collisions from boats.

An oil spill would be very harmful

According to the Greenpeace briefing paper:

Global biodiversity - The Red Sea contains “more than 16,000 km2 of coral reef that supports a high number of endemic species (i.e. occurring nowhere else)” and is “one of the longest continuous living reefs in the world…essential habitats for fish and invertebrates”.
Scleractinian coral species - The Red Sea has 365 of these stony species, with 19 or 5.5% of them endemic. Some of the corals in the Red Sea have been observed to be able to withstand a wide range of changes in sea temperature, and so are viewed as important for the future survival of the Red Sea reef system.
Declining southern Red Sea coral reefs - Since 1980, coral reef cover “along the Saudi Arabian coastline has declined over the past four decades”, as a result of construction and pollution emanating from sewage. Further contamination from “an oil spill would risk further, serious, damage to the southern Red Sea coral reefs”.
Detrimental effect on coral reefs from crude oil - A large oil spill would be “extremely detrimental to the environment in both the short and the
long term”. Even when the visible effects of the oil have disappeared, a “slow ‘invisible’ leak can cause chronic crude oil pollution that can also have severe biological consequences on coral reefs, including damage to corals’ reproduction, damage to the coral tissues and slowing the growth rate”. In addition, “oil accumulated in sediments can exert longer term impacts”.

In later posts in this series of environmental risks arising from a potential oil spill from the Safer, we will cover:

Wildlife (Fish, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and birds)
Coastal wetlands
Ecosystem-wide risks