Palau’s coral reefs found to have high coral cover
(2020)
Guam Pacific Daily News
USA Today Network
October 24, 2020
Researchers discovered Palau’s reefs have among the highest amount of live coral across ecosystems worldwide, according to the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.
Over the course of five years, researchers circumnavigated the globe, collecting baseline data on coral reefs. In 2015, the Global Reef Expedition, a research mission that assesses the health and resiliency of coral reefs around the world, came to Palau.
An international team of scientists and local experts spent a month surveying coral reefs across the country. They conducted over 1,800 standardized surveys of the benthic and fish communities on coral reefs in Palau, according to a news release.
Robust reefs
The average live coral cover recorded in Palau was over 45% and reached up to 70% in some marine protected areas.
